Photos: Stacey Verbeek

It was “rock’em sock’em robots” on Saturday night at the Toyota Center in Houston, Texas, as WBA featherweight champion Jesus Rojas (26-3-2, 19 KOs) and unbeaten contender Xu Can (11-0, 1 KO) waged war for twelve rounds. When the dust cleared, it was Xu who dethroned Rojas by surprisingly wide scores of 118-110, 117-111, 116-112. The fight was a slugfest that seemed much closer than that.

“I don’t feel the decision was correct,” said Jesus Rojas. “I don’t know what to say. I’m surprised. I spoke to Golden Boy Promotions, and I want the rematch. I think we worked well. I used my jab and I want the fight. Of course, I want the rematch!”

“This is my second time coming to the USA to fight,” said Xu Can. “Before I came here, I knew it was going to be a very hard fight. So I got ready for this fight. I did a lot of work for this. So, thank you to everyone. I respect my opponent, Rojas, my friend; he’s very tough. But I knew I can win. I can! I can! I knew I can defeat this fighter. I knew I can defend his punch, even though his punch is very strong, but I had confidence in my defense. I just punched, defend, punched, defend, punched, defend.”

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