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By Rocky Morales at ringside
Photos: Stephanie Trapp/SHOWTIME

In an all-out war, Leo Santa Cruz (35-1-1, 19KO) retained his WBA featherweight title and won the WBC Diamond featherweight title with a unanimous decision victory over Abner Mares (31-3-1, 15KO) in a rematch of their 2015 bout.

Not much was different in the rematch than the original bout with the two standing toe to toe and letting their fists fly. Santa Cruz, like last time, usually seemed to do just marginally better in the exchanges. Neither fighter seriously hurt the other in a fight that was often quantity of punches over quality of punches. Continue reading “Santa Cruz beats Mares again for WBA feather belt”

By David Robinett at ringside
Photos: Mikey Williams/Top Rank

Formerly undisputed jr welterweight champion Terence “Bud” Crawford (33-0, 24 KOs) stepped up to welterweight to dethrone WBO welterweight champion Jeff Horn (18-1-1, 12 KOs) by ninth round TKO on Saturday night at the MGM Grand Hotel Casino in Las Vegas. Crawford quickly figured out how to take Horn out of his game. After dominating the fight, he floored Horn in round nine and got a referee’s stoppage with his follow up barrage. Time was 2:33.

Coming into the fight one of the main storylines was whether the naturally bigger Horn could use his size to mitigate Crawford’s superior boxing skills. That turned out not to be the case, as Crawford appeared to have no problems with the higher weight class. After a tentative few early rounds, with both fighters having some moments of success, Crawford began to consistently time Horn coming forward and catch him with big shots, particularly with the left hand. When Horn would stand in one place for too long, Crawford would pop him with his right jab from the southpaw stance. Continue reading “Crawford halts Horn in nine, wins WBO welter title”

By Rocky Morales at ringside
Photos: Stephanie Trapp/SHOWTIME

WBC super welterweight champion Jermell Charlo (31-0, 15 KOs) scored a twelve round majority decision over former world champion Austin Trout (31-5, 17 KOs) on Saturday night at the Staples Center in Los Angeles. Charlo pressed the action, throughout, and dropped Trout in each the third and ninth rounds, while Trout was content to mostly safely box even when he was seemingly way down on the scorecards.

Trout, 5.5 years removed from being world champion, and 0-4 in subsequent title challenges, looked like an old fighter in the ring but an old fighter with enough boxing smarts to frustrate Charlo and stretch him to the distance to break a four fight knockout streak for Charlo. Charlo’s hand and foot speed was superior but Trout worked distance well. Besides the knockdowns, Trout appeared wobbled on numerous occasions but used his experience to survive. Continue reading “Charlo retains WBC title by decision over Trout”

By Rocky Morales at ringside

Lina Licona (1-0, 1KO) relentlessly assaulted Brittany Horton (0-2) landing about 75% of her punches on Horton who looked like she may have taken a couple boxing aerobics classes but hardly resembles a trained professional boxer. Horton went down from a barrage of punches late in the opening round but Licona seemed a little punched out in the second round allowing Horton to make it into the third round. Horton pushed her own punches throughout while Licona had plenty of mustard on her own shots attacking both the head and body with an equal lack of mercy. Finally, early in the third round, Licona cornered Horton in a corner and unleashed a barrage of punches that landed before the referee stepped in to put an end to the massacre. At 0:45 of the third round, Licona wins her debut by way of knockout in a scheduled four round light flyweight bout.

2016 Olympian, Karlos Balderas (5-0, 4KO), made short work of Alex Silva (3-8, 2KO), knocking him out at 2:25 of the first round. Balderas dropped Silva halfway into the first round and then landed a devastating body shot to the liver that had Silva rolling around on the canvas in excruciating pain as he was counted out. Karlos is the younger brother of Jose Balderas who fought and won in the preceding fight on the card. Continue reading “Santa Cruz-Mares Undercard Results”

By David Robinett at ringside

Former IBF super featherweight champion Jose “Sniper” Pedraza (24-1, 12 KOs) continued his climb up the lightweight ladder with a ten round unanimous decision over Antonio Moran (22-3 15 KOs) by surprisingly close identical scores of 96-94. For his trouble Pedraza picked up the WBO Latino lightweight title. Pedraza, who took most of the year off in 2017 after losing his belt to Gervonta Davis, looked sharp in this one, using superior upper body movement and defense to evade many of Moran’s flurries and attempts at combinations, and then firing back with sharp, accurate counterpunches that shredded Moran’s face, leaving it a bloody mess from about the third round forward. When he wasn’t slipping punches Pedraza was able to cover up and absorb many of Moran’s punches with his gloves. In the later rounds, as Moran’s aggression started to fade, Pedraza switched out counterpunching for stinging lead left hands which Moran was too slow to avoid. Pedraza’s lack of one-punch power might be a liability against the best, but against Moran it just prolonged the punishment, the proverbial death by a thousand cuts, culminating in an impressive performance establishing Pedraza as a legitimate contender in his new weight class.

In a WBA world title eliminator, undefeated Jose Benavidez (27-0, 18 KOs) barely broke a sweat in quickly disposing of previously unbeaten knockout artist Frank Rojas (22-1, 21 KOs) via first round knockout. A straight left hand by Benavidez, followed by a left hook to the body, caused a delayed reaction by Rojas, who backed up a few steps, and then dropped to the canvas for nearly a minute, with an official end of 1:24 of the first round. Although the win might have been as much about Rojas’ padded record coming into the bout as it was the body punch by Benavidez, following a nearly two year layoff after being shot in the leg, the win was undoubtedly a welcome one for comebacking Benavidez, who now has two wins in a row since returning to the ring this past February. Continue reading “Horn-Crawford Undercard Results”

Photos: Sumio Yamada

Former world heavyweight champion Tyson “Gypsy King” Fury (26-0, 16 KOs) returned with a one-sided four round TKO over Sefer “The Real Deal” Seferi (23-2, 21 KOs) on Saturday night at the Manchester Arena in Manchester, United Kingdom.

The 6’9 Fury, who has been sidelined with mental health issues for the past 2½ years, towered over the 39-year-old Seferi who mostly campaigns at cruiserweight. The tone of the fight was set when Fury kissed Seferi on the lips during the pre-fight face-off. The fighters smiled and touched gloves several times. At one point Fury was warned by the ref to stop talking to the crowd. The non-competitive affair ended when Seferi quit after round four. Continue reading “Fury wins in comeback fight”

Photos: Sumio Yamada

In a clash between unbeaten fighters for the vacant WBO junior welterweight crown, Texan Maurice Hooker (24-0-3, 16 KOs) scored a twelve round split decision over former WBO lightweight champion and hometown favorite Terry Flanagan (33-1, 13 KOs) on Saturday night at the Manchester Arena in Manchester, UK.

Close fight. Flanagan suffered a deep cut on the forehead after a violent head clash. Scores were 115-113, 117-111 Hooker, 117-111 Flanagan. The title was formerly held by Terence Crawford, who moved up in weight.

Photos

Photos: Team SES / P. Gercke

Former WBA super welterweight world champion Jack Culcay (24-3, 12 KOs) scored a sixth round TKO over Adasat Rodriguez (17-8-2, 10 KOs) in a bout for the vacant EBU EU belt at the Kohlrabizirkus in Leipzig, Germany. A barrage of Culcay punches prompted a referee’s stoppage. Time was :55. Continue reading “Culcay claims EU middleweight belt”

Roberto Garcia will defend his WBC silver middleweight title against Martin Murray at The O2 in London on June 23. Murray will be looking to put the frustrations of missing out on a shot at the WBO middleweight world title behind him when he challenges Mexico’s 41-3 Garcia later this month.

Garcia is currently enjoying a 13-fight winning streak that stretches back to 2010 and will be heading to London full of confidence. Continue reading “New opponent for Martin Murray”

Tuto Zabala’s All Star Boxing has signed Mexican flyweight title contender Julian “El Niño Artillero” Yedra (24-3, 13 KOs) of Cuidad Del Carmen, Campeche, Mexico. “We are very pleased to have brought Julian onboard, for many years we’ve worked with smaller weights and have created great careers for smaller weight fighters. We are looking to get him in the ring very soon,” said Tuto Zabala Jr. Continue reading “All Star Boxing inks Julian Yedra”

Tonight’s WBA welterweight elimination bout clash between WBA #5 Frank Rojas (22-0, 21 KOs) and WBA #6 Jose Benavidez (26-0, 17 KOs) at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas will give the winner a direct path to fight for the WBA welterweight title. The fight is in support of the Crawford-Horn clash.

Benavidez previously held the WBA interim title at 140 pounds.