10-06-2016, 06:49 PM
(10-04-2016, 06:10 PM)NakiFan Wrote: I watched Junior's fight again today. Here is what I think about his latest outing...hey
Junior controlled his distance really well. The jab helped achieve this, and often setup his left-right-left combo. Junior doesn't really snap the jab out there, it seems like he uses it mainly as a range finder, setting up combo's. Junior is most effective with the jab when he started to double up on it. Footwork was good, as he controlled the ring well, albeit on the outside. He wasn't caught in the corners at all, and got out of any pressure A'Asa put on him.
I wish he threw more body shots. When he does the opponent is noticeably troubled, but after the punch goes in, there was rarely a followed up combo to captilise on the lowered arms and hands. It was like, he was wanting to score points, get in, get points go to range, rinse and repeat. Does he lack the killer instinct, or was he wary of the overhand right of A'Asa?
Overall a solid performance from Junior. He needs to start with some overseas seasoned fighters from this point. Crafty fighters, without the KO rick factors.....kind of Minto type fighters. Bergman comes to mind.
He has already got another 3 opponents penciled in according to Boxrec:
2016-12-17 -Afa Tatupu- 9 6 0- AMI Netball Centre, St Johns
2016-11-12- Daniel Tai- 21 9 4- AMI Netball Centre, St Johns (vacant New Zealand Professional Boxing Association (NZPBA) heavyweight title)
2016-10-28- Junior Maletino Iakopo- 3 17 2- ASB Stadium, Kohimarama
So he is keeping busy, which is good.
I would like to see him really snap that jab out there in pairs and use the beautiful straight right he possesses. Work the body often, and not be afraid to finish things off in spectacular fashion. It's great to see another quality HW coming through, and I hope he finds the backing to continue on a path to international fights.
NakiFan
we were happy with the performance. was a first risk/test fight in the fact that alapati can bang so junior did the right thing and controlled the range and fight. i.e. lewis vs tua ( not comparing fight but style here) . our target for the year has been to introduce junior into a full-time role which we are nearly at. next year we will see the tests starting. he has been very busy and only pro for 6 months. took JP 2 years to get to 10 wins and he has been developed extremely fast and well. be great to fight a minto / bergman next year when junior is ready. the one thing we are extremely happy with is his power. was not able to use it as we wanted but alapati didn't throw many shots for us to counter ion which is juniors straight. looking forward to next fight. will be interesting to see what happen if parker can fight for a world title in AK and see what comes up for junior if that happens.