This past Saturday may not have had a lot of bouts in the US though it was still a major weekend of fights with some fantastic contests across the globe. The first world title of the day was in Finland of all places as WBA Lightweight champion Richar Abril (19-3-1, 8) retained his belt with a majority decision over local favourite Edis Tatli (23-1, 7). On paper the bout was a contest between a proven world class operator and a promising, though untested, prospect. As it turned out it was the proven fighter that would have that bit too much class and although one judge had the bout even at 114-114 the right man got the win. Sadly we would like to question what Carla Caiz was watching though lets not dwell on what now seems to be the token bad card. With this win Abril ended a break of more than a year between fights and will now likely be a target for Takahiro Ao among others. Although not a world title bout there was another major bout in Europe as 2-time world title challenger George Groves (20-2, 15) claimed the European Super Middleweight title and became the WBC mandatory challenger courtesy of a clear decision over Frenchman Christopher Rebrasse (22-3-3, 6). Although the win was well deserved from Groves he did appear to be lucky in that he was face a light punching fighter who was more concerned with defense than offense. This was Grove's return to the ring following a nasty KO at the hands of Carl Froch earlier this year and the result should set Groves up another world title bout bout between with a contest against Anthony Dirrell, the current WBC champion, the supposed reward for this win though with the way boxing works you never can be sure about these things. Next the attention turned to Mexico where there were several major bouts. In the Super Flyweight division fans saw WBC champion Carlos Cuadras (30-0-1, 24) make the first successful defense of his title as he scored a 4th round technical draw with fellow Mexican Jose Salgado (34-2-2, 27). The bout saw Cuadras in action for the first time since his technical decision win over Srisaket Sor Rungvisai, a decision that won him the belt. Sadly however a headclash, which looks to have been a complete accident on replay, left Salgado unable to go on. Their was talk of a rematch after the fight though we'll be honest and admit we'd rather see Cuadras give a rematch to Srisaket. The bout looked really exciting on paper and came just a day after Omar Andres Narvaez retained his WBO title. Sadly the early conclusion left wondering about what could have happened. On the same card in Mexico fans saw WBA female Bantamweight champion Irma Garcia (11-1-1, 2) retain her world title with a decision win over Brazil's Simone Da Silva Duarte (14-7, 6) in what really was a poor excuse for a world title fight. We like Garcia though have no idea how Da Silva Duarte continues to get high profile bouts like this, she has proven she isn't good enough to compete at this level so lets stop having her in this type of bout! The two traded through out the bout but there was a clear gulf in class between the two. On a separate Mexican card, televised on BeIN sports Espanol, we saw Javier Mendoza (22-2-1, 18) battle incredibly hard with Ramon Garcia Hirales (20-5-1, 12) for the previously vacant IBF Light Flyweight title. The bout was a war from the opening bell with both throwing heavy leather at each other. The fire power of Garcia seemed to shake up Mendoza in round 3 though the best shot of the round was landed too late for Garcia to make the most of it, just a few rounds later it was Garcia Hirales who was hurt, and in fact dropped after some big body shots from his fellow Mexican. From then on Mendoza continually went to the body and round by round Garcia Hirales wilted, he did his belt to fight back but the body shots took all the steam out of him. In round 10 Garcia Hirales was down for the second time in the fight. Amazingly Garcia Hirales rallied strongly in round 11 as Mendoza seemed to begin struggling with the pace though he managed to see out the small scare and had done enough to take a clear decision after the bell to end round 12. At the end of 12 rounds it was amazing that both men had managed to see out the 12 rounds in what was one of the best fights this year. Truly a sensational fight and well worth checking out if you didn't get to see it live. We imagine now that Mendoza, with his new IBF title, will be targeted by both Ryo Miyazaki and Akira Yaegashi, who are both looking to claim Light Flyweight titles in the near future, and we'd imagine either of those bouts would be another FOTY contender courtesy of the styles of the fighters. (Image, from the Mendoza/Garcia bout, courtesy of Katsuo Miura/boxingnews.jp)
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InternationalWe know that not every fight involves an Asian fighter but a lot of fights do affect Asian fighter. As a result we've decided to add this new section to Asian boxing where we look at selected International bouts. Archives
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