In what is arguably the most over-looked bout of the weekend, Mexican skillster Cristian Mijares (36-2-1, 21) faces the criminally under-rated Victor Terrazas (47-6-2, 22) in a bout for the vacant WBC Super Bantamweight title. Sure we all know quite clearly right now that Guillermo Rigondeaux is the premier Bantamweight in the world thanks to his performance last week out boxing Nonito Donaire for the WBO and WBA "super" titles, but this is still a hugely promising bout between two Mexicans.
For Mijares, one of the most sound "boxers" Mexico has ever produced it's a chance to become a 3-time, 2 weight world champion after having had 2 title runs at Super Flyweight. It was of course at 115lbs that Mijares made his name as he first claimed the WBC "interim" belt, defeating Katsushige Kawashima in Japan (twice), before thoroughly out boxing the always fun to watch Jorge Arce in a thoroughly one sided domination.
Mijares's WBC title reign would see him defeating Jose Navarro, Alexander Munoz and Chatchai Sasakul. Although several of his fights were close on the cards it was a mystery as to how judges were scoring them close and really the judges in some cases should have been forced to explain their scorecards. Sadly however for Mijares his reign finally came to an end after 7 defenses of the WBC title and one of the WBA he had claimed from Munoz as Vic Darchinyan walked through him before scoring a stoppage in round 9 in eye catching fashion.
Following the loss to Darchinyan, Mijares would suffer back to back decision losses to Nehomar Cermeno in bouts for the WBA Bantamweight title as fans started to write off Mijares as a fighter who was done. Since those losses Cermeno back in 2009 however Mijares has totally rebuilt his career with 11 straight wins which saw him gaining the IBF Super Flyweight title (which he has since given up). This run of 11 wins has seen him defeating Francisco Arce, Juan Alberto Rosas and most notably Rafael Marquez.
As a pure boxer Mijares is a real joy. He can move and box with the best of them and unlike a typical Mexican he seems happier to avoid a battle of machismo than to get dragged in to one, though this is in part due to his less then average power which as seen his stoppage rate standing at a perfect 40%. Whilst this has seen him running up 401 professional rounds since his debut back in 1997 he hasn't taken 401 rounds of damage due to his defensive abilities which have, the Darchinyan fight aside, seen him remain on his feet at the final bell of every bout.
Although co-challenger Victor Terrazas is much less well known by the American boxing fans he's a figure who is pretty well known by the hardcore fans and even British fans oddly enough. The 30 year old, from Jalisco has been a professional since 2003 and although he lost bis debut (KO2 to Adrian Tellez) he has carved out an excellent career of his own.
Following his debut loss, Terrazas won 26 of his next 27 fights before fighting outside of Mexico for the first time in his career as he traveled to Britain to face Rendall Munroe in a WBC Bantamweight eliminator. Sadly for Terrazas the body of Munroe wore him down after a good start and in round 9 Terrazas was stopped following a terrific shot by Munroe (who went on to lose Nishioka in the eventual world title fight).
Since his loss to Munroe, Terrazas has been excellent adding 10 straight victories to his record including victories over Nehomar Cermeno (the man who twice beat Mijares) and Fernando Montiel as he's forced his way back into title contention.
Going in to this is genuinely an intriguing bout. Terrazas, as he showed against Montiel, is a fantastic pressure fighter who can be in your grill and grind you down (he dropped Montiel in that one left him bloodied), but on the opposite side Mijares is a genuine master boxer. If we go on the Darchinyan fight then it's hard to see Mijares winning, though Terrazas isn't Darchinyan, he's not as dynamite fisted or as conventional as the Armenian.
I'm a huge fan of Mijares though I just think with the styles involved here, Terrazas eventually grinds him down, though of course I'd not be shocked by Mijares putting on a master class of boxing and claiming a decision over his fellow Mexican. A really, really good match up.
Prediction-Terrazas TKO10
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