Okay night of fights.
Pedraza looked good. That was an entertaining fight, I just wish Pedraza would have forced the issue and went for some sort of stoppage.
Wilder. Yikes. His power is his saving grace. That and his length are the only things I like right now. His chin is extremely suspect. He can only fight at distance, he has to have a lot of separation and really wind his punches up. Typically he only throws two punches, a jab and waits for the right hand. Sometimes the left hook gets mixed in, which is what won him the fight vs. Molina, and he needs to learn to be more effective going to the body. That jab though, is a helluva jab. I would like to see him go against a bigger opponent (length wise). Stiverne and Molina could rarely get inside because they were at such a reach disadvantage. Molina was throwing punches while jumping in just to reach Wilder. Neither guy ever had much leverage on his punches. The times Molina got inside and landed on Wilder you could tell he didn't like it. A guy who is close in height to Wilder and can close the gap and force Wilder to fight at a closer distance and not let him tee of from halfway across the ring...would be a tough fight for Wilder.
Verdejo looks like the real deal. As others have said his defense was a bit loose, but his offensive repertoire and power are excellent. The commenting was good in that he easily makes LW, but yet by just looking at him you can see he will carry weight well and should be able to move up in weight when the time comes and be just fine.
Najera put on a game effort and despite getting knocked down just a great chin. He never looked wobbled in the legs after those flush shots.
His style was ugly as hell though.
Walters-Marriaga. I don't know what to make of that. Walters looked good enough, but a fair amount just felt like a size advantage. Overall Walters was the better fighter, but he took a lot of flush shots and you wonder what it would have looked liked had he been fighting someone who weighed as much as he did. I would still want to see Walters-Lomachenko...but that fight has never been on my uber-desired list since I have felt that Walters was a 130-135 pound fighter masquerading at 126. It would be fun to see the far more technically gifted Lomachenko take on the very competent and hard fisted Walters. I still prefer the technical masterpiece that would be Loma-Rigo.
Marriaga accounted well enough for himself that I think he would be a good opponent for anyone else at 126. We know Walters can crack and with the size advantage, Marriaga proved he is a tough dude.
That is an indictment on his entire career then because everyone he has fought has either been horrible or mediocre.