Jesus Marcelo Andres Cuellar STOPS Ruben Tamayo in FIVE

By Lou Eisen

In a rare meeting of southpaws that took place at the Little Creek Casino Resort in Shelton, Washington last night, Argentinean Jesus Marcelo Andres “El Forastero” Cuellar, 26-1, 20 KO’s, the interim WBA world featherweight titlist, looked absolutely superb in leaving no doubt at all as to who was indeed the better fighter by stopping tough Mexican southpaw Ruben “El Canelito” Tamayo in a one-sided brutal fight.

The fight ended at 1:48 of the fifth round, as Cuellar successfully defended his WBA interim world featherweight title in a most impressive fashion. Cuellar proved that he is a force to be reckoned with in the talent-lade featherweight division. It is safe to say that Cuellar is an elite fighter in every one’s books, regardless of whatever criteria one may choose to use as a yardstick, when measuring the talent or worth of a top fighter, He also personified the old boxing adage, which states, “It’s not the size of the dog in the fight that counts, but rather, the size of fight in the dog.”

Cuellar used his excellent hand speed to good use by throwing all of his shots in quick but debilitating combinations. Cuellar throws his punches straight down the pike, which makes his power shots much more formidable. Cuellar doesn’t loop his shots or throw arm punches at all. He gets the most out of each punch he throws. He is smart enough to take whatever his ring rival is giving him at the time. Tamayo left his body unprotected so Cuellar savagely attacked his challenger’s body and flanks with terrible abandon and a feral intensity that began to sap the strength from Tamayo’s over taxed legs early on.

Cuellar is short even by featherweight standards, standing only 5’6” tall, compared to Tamayo who towered over the champ at a height of 5’10” and one half inches tall. In the end, Cuellar eliminated Tamayo’s height advantage by attacking his body relentlessly, forcing the challenger to lean forward in a clumsy and ineffective effort to protect his flanks against the vicious left hooks to the liver that Cuellar was firing and landing at will. Cuellar was able to successfully double over Tamayo with such unending fusillades of vicious body shots, which ended up bringing the hapless the challenger’s chin lower to the ground, making it an ideal and easy target for the champion to tee off on with ferocious uppercuts and hook to the head with both hands.

Cuellar’s balance was near perfect, allowing him to get maximum leverage on all of his body punches as well as his power shots to the head whenever he switched his assault upstairs. Cuellar’s skills were showcased to great effect as his overall attack did tremendous damage to Tamayo in every round, even though it sometimes appeared as if Tamayo were taking the champions punches in stride.

Suffice it to say, everywhere Cuellar’s power shots landed, they shook up Tamayo, making him gradually more hesitant to fire off any powerful or significant counter punches of his own accord. In the five rounds the fight lasted, Tamayo was never able to earn Cuellar’s respect inside the squared circle.

From the fourth round on, it was evident that Tamayo was in strict survival mode, and hoping only to last the distance. Any thoughts or dreams Tamayo may have entertained earlier in the bout of pulling off a huge upset had vanished at the end of round four, in which Cuellar dished out a savage beating to his outclassed challenger.

In the scintillating fourth round, Cuellar landed many crushing body shots, which sent the game but thoroughly beaten challenger to the canvas unceremoniously on two different occasions. In the fifth and what turned out to be final round, Cuellar, whose hunger for blood had been whetted in the previous round, finished off his steadily weakening challenger by dropping him hard to the mat (with a loud, audible thud) one more time before referee Mark Nelson stepped in and stopped fight, saving Tamayo from more unnecessary punishment.

It was a smart stoppage especially when you factor in the feral beating Tamayo had suffered up until that moment in the fight. Tamayo had yet to even win a round, making the ending a foregone conclusion. Tamayo lost every round to a far superior fighter but did survive to fight another day, just hopefully not against Cuellar.

For producing such an overwhelming and one-sided victory over Tamayo, Cuellar’s “reward” for beating Tamayo is the chance to challenge Leo Santa Cruz, Guillermo Rigondeaux or Carl Frampton for one of their world featherweight world titles. In retrospect, that does not sound like much of a prize at all.