Jones wins rematch with Soto-Karass

Mike Jones, the undefeated welterweight contender from Frankford, finally is learning to use his head - and not just for the unintentional head-butts that helped transform Jesus Soto-Karass' head into a bloody mess Saturday night.

Jones scored a less-than-aesthetically-pleasing, 10-round majority decision over Soto-Karass on Nov. 13 in Cowboys Stadium, nearly punching himself out in a frenetic second round after badly hurting the iron-jawed Mexican, who had never been stopped. Only after catching his second win in the later rounds was Jones able to salvage the victory that, in terms of assessing his potential, was more of a question mark than an exclamation point.

In the do-over against Soto-Karass in Las Vegas' MGM Grand, which also was televised by HBO, Jones fought a more controlled, strategic fight. He stayed with the strategy laid out by his trainer, Vaughn Jackson, who stressed that Jones needed to use his jab and ring generalship more to break Soto-Karass down round-by-round, instead of unloading everything so early.

Jones might have inadvertently inflicted cuts over Soto-Karass' left eye in the third round and over his right eye in the seventh round as their heads banged, but it was his precision punching that was the biggest deciding factor as he scored a unanimous, 12-round decision to retain his fringe NABA and NABO 147-pound titles.

In the main event, Nonito Donaire (26-1, 18 KOs) floored WBC/WBO bantamweight champion Fernando Montiel (44-3-2, 34 KOs) twice in the second round, wresting those titles on a second-round technical knockout that further certified the Filipino as one of boxing's pound-for-pound best.

"I spread my punches out over 12 rounds instead of using most of them up in one round," Jones said in the dressing room after the fight.

Jackson had cautioned his fighter to follow the same fight plan the first time around, but Jones (24-0, 18 KOs), used to scoring quick knockouts, admits that advice "went in one ear and out the other" once he wobbled Soto-Karass (24-6-3, 16 KOs). This time, Jones remembered to do what his trainer again had told him to do.

"It was muscle memory," Jones said. "If you do something in the gym and keep doing it, it becomes second nature.

"This [fight] was a lot better. I watched tapes of guys like Sugar Ray Robinson, fighters who used their jabs to set up their right hand."

Judges Richard Ocasio, Robert Hoyle and Duane Ford all scored it for Jones by scores of 117-111, 116-112 and 115-113, respectively. Punch statistics compiled by CompuBox showed Jones landing 408 of 848 punches (48 percent) to just 226 of 993 (23 percent) for Soto-Karass. He outjabbed Soto-Karass by a similar margin, 226 of 502 (45 percent) to 93 of 460 (20 percent).

"He was sensational," Jackson said of Jones. "He stuck to the plan and didn't get away from it. We worked on the jab a lot so his combinations would come out, and they did. I hope we silenced all the critics."

Even though he won handily, Jones - who hurt Soto-Karass several times, particularly in the last few rounds after he had been softened up by a barrage of body shots - didn't expose himself to the sort of putaway shot that was Soto-Karass' only chance at an upset.

"I take my hat off to him," Jones said of his rawhide-tough opponent. "That dude is tough. It's like I told him after the fight, I'd like to take him to dinner or something."