WBO junior flyweight champion Elwin Soto (18-1, 12 KOs) retained his title with a twelve round unanimous decision over Carlos Buitrago (32-6-1, 18 KOs) on Friday night at Fantasy Springs Resort Casino in Indio, California. Soto had to work hard to win 119-109, 117-111, 115-113. Buitrago was making the sixth world title challenge of his career.
“I’m very happy to walk away with the victory,” said Soto. “I tried pressure as much as I good to score a win. These are the kind of tough fights you are in when a world title is at stake. His style was difficult for me, but I felt I did enough to win. Now it’s time for me to rest and see what my team has in store for me.”
119-109 ? Another terrible judge. Something has to be done about the judging in boxing.
Soto is a frustrating fighter to watch. He is so sparing in his punches and when he does throw, he goes headhunting most of the time. He was the stalker in the fight and Buitrago was moving and throwing punches. Soto landed the harder shots, but he missed most of his head shots and was lucky to land 3 or 4 clean punches in a round.
If you give points for stalking and looking like you want to fight but not actually throwing much and missing most of your shots, then Soto is your man. I thought Buitrago did enough to win the fight. Two of the judges disagreed giving Soto the decision by a wide margin.
One example of the frustration I have with Soto is that when he missed a right hand over the top, his body was torqued such that the next obvious punch was a left hook to the body and head. He never threw that left hook. I ended up screaming at the screen for him to quit headhunting and throw to the body with both hands. A frustrating night for this viewer. I don’t think Soto deserved that decision.