SHOWING amazing resiliency after being knocked down in the dying seconds of the opening round by a vicious left hook from previously unbeaten Prince Albert Pagara, Mexico’s Cesar Juarez came charging back and eventually crushed the world-title hopeful with a series of bludgeoning punches that sent the Filipino crashing to the canvas early in Round 8, where he lay prostrate on all fours for several minutes before being stretchered out and taken by ambulance to the Stanford Medical Center.

Dr. Ed de la Vega, who was part of the three-man team which worked the corner of Pagara, that included trainer Edmund Villanueva and his brother Edito, accompanied the Filipino boxer to the hospital and informed The Standard said he will undergo a  CT Scan, but was alert and conversing with him.

It was obvious that Juarez, who displayed the same kind of remarkable comeback when he lost in his bid for the vacant WBO junior featherweight title to Nonito Donaire in Puerto Rico last December, was in his element against Pagara.

Juarez regularly pushed Pagara to the ropes and bombarded him with thundering body shots that soon began to sap the energy out of the young Filipino in a fight that was regarded as the ultimate test of whether he was ready for a possible world title shot.

Juarez provided the answer in emphatic fashion as he began to dominate the fight after being stunned by the initial first-round knockdown. 

In the seventh round, Juarez backed Pagara against the ropes and unleashed a two-fisted assault that had the Filipino in trouble. 

However, he used his footwork to get back into the center of the ring but Juarez pinned him down again and often connected with solid blows to the head. Pagara was on wobbly legs as he headed to the corner at the bell. Smiling in the corner before the eighth, Pagara rose slowly.

Boxing Scene noted that Pagara’s corner seemed to be helping him get his balance and he sort of stumbled out of the corner without so much as an eye on Juarez. Pagara walked right into a flush four-punch combination and was deposited right back in the corner he’d just left. The referee jumped in to halt the action immediately. 

The official time of the stoppage was :15 seconds of Round 8.

Juarez called out Donaire and asked for a rematch, which Donaire readily agreed to but said his promoters would have to work it out.

Donaire, who was on the ABS-CBN TV panel at the San Mateo Events Center, said he thought “more than anything, it was the exhaustion” that led to Pagara’s first KO loss. There were also those who claimed that Pagara was too confident and  bordered on being cocky.