Denver’s Manny Perez loses questionable decisoin to Vernon Paris on ESPN’s Friday Night Fights
All Creative Content is associated with the Denver Post May 10, 2013
Denver’s Manny Perez lost a questionable decision to Vernon Paris in front of a hometown Detroit crowd for Paris on Friday night on ESPN. Judges scored the welterweight bout a unanimous decision — 97-93, 96-94, 98-92 — in favor of Paris.
The Denver Post scored the fight on TV for Perez, 96-94. ESPN analyst Teddy Atlas marked the fight a 95-95 draw. ESPN’s Bernardo Osuna called it a “controversial” decision. Perez was tasteful in defeat, congratulating Paris.
Early in the fight, Perez popped inside and out, jabbing at Paris’ body and launching left hooks that did some damage. Then in the later rounds, Perez landed some overhand rights that snapped Paris’ head back.
Perez dropped to 19-9-1. Paris improved to 28-1.
Detroit boxing legend Thomas “The Hitman” Hearns sat ringside at the Masonic Temple for the fight.
Earlier pre-fight post: One of the best bouts in the 2012 season of ESPN’s “Friday Night Fights” saw Denver’s Manny Perez earn an upset of Edgar Santana in Delaware. His tough left hook over and over won him the fight by unanimous decision.
Perez (19-8-1) returns to ESPN on Friday (tonight) for a nationally-televised bout against Miami’s Vernon Paris (27-1). The fights are scheduled to air on ESPN2 at 8 p.m.
The 28-year-old Denver boxer is likely another underdog against Paris. But that hasn’t stopped him before.
Perez is a great story. He works two jobs when he’s not boxing out of the Grudge Training Center in Wheat Ridge with Jake Ramos.
In July of last year, he traveled to Cancun, Mexico, to beat Jose Miguel Cotto (brother of three-division champion Miguel Cotto) by split decision. In his last bout, Perez won by unanimous decision over Bernardo Guereca at Red and Jerry’s in Sheridan. He’s won three of his past four bouts, falling only to Paul McCloskey by decision in front of McCloskey’s home crowd in Belfast, Ireland.
In 2008, Perez fought Brandon Rios to a 10-round draw in Denver. It was the only mark against Rios’ record until Denver’s Mike Alvarado beat Rios by unanimous decision in March.
Paris is coming off a tune-up bout in February, a third-round TKO of Guy Packer in Michigan. But before that, he hadn’t fought for nearly a year, after lost by ninth-round TKO to Zab Judah in Brooklyn.