MANCHESTER, England – Cuba’s Mike Perez returned to the ring after 12 months out to earn a victory over Franklin Arinze at the Co-op Live.
The former cruiserweight world-title challenger looked every bit of his 40 years and struggled with the now 10-1 (7 KOs) Arinze throughout. Perez won via a score of 78-74, but will know it did not reflect the competitiveness of their contest.
It was a poor start for the declining Cuban, who was rocked early on by a right hand from Arinze, 34, and bundled to the floor shortly afterwards by the Nigerian. He was more convincing in the second, but he was also struggling to deal with the speed and athleticism of his younger foe.
Perez’s southpaw jab became more consistent in the third, and he was able to land a nice left hand, and followed it up with another downstairs. The fourth was scrappy; Arinze cracked Perez with a nice right hand before hammering away at his body. Perez was looking tired, but was still finding enough room to sink in bodyshots and the occasional left uppercut.
The fifth was again a close affair, but it was Perez who was pressing the action. The pair seemed locked together at times, laying on the ropes and hammering away at each other’s mid-section. Arinze battled back in the seventh, when landing two right hands that knocked back the head of Arinze. The eighth, again, was competitive, and at the sound of the final bell neither fighter was confident they’d done enough. Perez, 32-3-1 (22 KOs), got the nod on the referee Darren Sarginson’s scorecard.
Before then, the junior middleweight Issiah Hamilton-Allen recorded the second win of his professional career when defeating Connor Goulding, 6-11, over four rounds. The referee Howard Foster’s scorecard read 39-37 in favour of the now 2-0 Hamilton-Allen.
