Zappavigna can consider himself very lucky
When Jimmy Lennon Jr read out the 116-111, 114-113 and 116-111 scorecards in favour of Lenny Zappavigna, all his Christmases' and birthday presents came in the one day. After going into the fight with comparisons to Aussie legend Kostya Tszyu, Zappavigna exited the ring if anything, a cheap version of interim WBO lightweight champion Michael Katsidis.
Zappavigna lacked a game plan and looked to be on a ship that was sinking very quickly when he was on the receiving end of a nasty gash over this right eye. Zappavigna started the fight in typical fashion, pounding the body of Angulo with some devastating looking shots and looking to land the overhand right which knocked out the majority of opponents he had beaten in Australia.
After having won the opening two rounds, Zappavigna seemed to go into knockout mode, not selecting his shots and walking after Angulo rather than cutting off the ring. Zappavigna was walking in, not using his jab and was a cannot miss target for Angulo's right hand; hence the swelling on both sides of "Lenny Zappa's" face after four rounds.
Angulo was busier from the fourth round and was rewarded by landing more thudding punches to the head and body of Zappavigna. The middle rounds were difficult to score as each fighter had their moments. To the surprise of many, Angulo's workrate and punch output was actually increasing as the rounds went on, this was very surprising as Angulo spent three-hours the night before trying to lose the excess weight he was carrying (Angulo weighed in three-pounds heavy).
In the eighth round, Zappavigna suffered a nasty cut over his right eye from what looked like a head butt. Zappavigna was sent over to the ringside physician who let the fight continue; from then on if Zappavigna had any game plan it certainly wasn't visible. After seeing blood, Angulo went on the attack, throwing left hooks to the head and attacking the body and appeared to hurt the young Aussie with a right hand as the exchanged through to the end of the round.
When it seemed Angulo’s experience and workrate was overwhelming Zappavigna; Angulo had a point deducted by referee Pat Russell for hitting Zappavigna on the break. It was interesting to see that Russell was quick to take the point off after appearing to have only warned Angulo about the punching on the break once and for the record, the punch missed.
For the last three rounds of the bout, Zappavigna, who was under strict instructions from head-trainer Tommy Mercuri boxed more from the outside, keeping his distance away from Angulo and primarily, trying not to get hit. Although Angulo went forward, Zappavigna attempted to counter from the outside and was successful as times with his right hand, but the jab that Zappavigna should have been using to set up his punches simply wasn't there.
At the conclusion of the bout, Zappavigna launched himself onto the corner ropes and praised the far from capacity crowd for their support and to the trained eye looked as if he genuinely thought he had won. When Zappavigna was announced the winner, he was lifted into the air and began to shed tears, very similar in the way that Billy Dib did when he defeated Zolani Morali in another questionable decision to land the IBO featherweight title in 2008.
"This was what I wanted, a tough fight, a war" Zappavigna said.
"Everybody expects me to go in and blow guys away but I wanted a war. I wanted fans to see that I could fight 12 hard rounds. The cut obviously had an effect on me, but I was not going to be denied. I came here determined more than anything to win that belt, and I got it."
Zappavigna can be given the benefit as it was his first title-fight on American television and in front of a much higher audience. However, if Zappavigna doesn't fix the fundamental errors that reared their ugly heads, his ride to the top will be a very short and albeit unsuccessful one.