There was a big show last night at Mangaung Indoor Centre in Bloemfontein with a South African and three WBF title belts at stake.

Ex-South African light and super middleweight champ William Gare, 26-14 (5), continued his reign as WBF super middle kingpin by dropping previously undefeated Mexican champ Rigoberto Alvarez, 22-1 (16), in the first enroute to a 12 round unanimous decision.

34 year old iron-chinned Braamfischer man Gare has now won four straight bouts and managed three WBF title defenses.

The "Killer Shark" was back in action on the bill as undefeated Mlungisi Dlamini, 20-0-1 (12), retained his WBF lightweight crown for the fourth time, handling ex-super feather world title challenger Francisco Lorenzo, 33-6 (14), via 12 round unanimous decision.

Big punching Bongani Mwelase, 14-0 (12), lost his WBF welter belt on the scales during his last appearance so the Gauteng southpaw simply went up to light middle to capture the vacant WBF title with a 12 round unanimous decision over Attila "Viper" Kovacs, 25-4 (17).

With the South African super middle trophy at risk, Tshepang Mohale, 7-2 (6), gained revenge upon Kgotso Motau, 15-3 (13), to reverse a May, 2008 loss and regain the title.

Six months after their well-documented first bout ended in a fiasco, super featherweights Humberto Soto and Francisco Lorenzo went at it again, this time for the vacant WBC title, at Parque Andres Quintana Roo in Cozumel, Mexico.

The much shorter Lorenzo came out strong, backing up Soto and enjoying a few good moments in the first frame, landing overhand rights but was also clipped with sharp counters from Soto for his efforts.

With each successive round, Soto became more effective at picking off the oncoming Lorenzo but the Mexican allowed his Dominican opponent to stay in the bout by slugging it out rather than using his height and reach advantage to good effect by boxing.

Soto fought Lorenzo's fight and the action wasn't pretty. Lorenzo found the target plenty of times to be sure but was decked and hurt on more than one occasion and didn't help his cause in losing two points for infractions.

But the outcome was really never in doubt as Soto outclassed his opponent to win the vacant WBC title by scores of 118-108 and 117-109 twice, improving to 46-7-2 (29). Lorenzo falls to 33-5 (14) after mounting a far better performance than during the first bout with Soto. More...

Their first fight took on a farcical nature when Francisco Lorenzo defeated Humberto Soto by fourth round disqualification in June despite absorbing a tremendous beating along the way.

Such was the controversy of the bout's ending that the WBC decided not to award Lorenzo the Interim Super Featherweight title that had been on offer to the winner when the pair met this past June in Las Vegas.

A rematch takes place tonight at Parque Andres Quintana Roo in Cozumel, Mexico between Tijuana based Soto, 45-7-2 (29), and New Jersey based Lorenzo, 33-4 (14), originally of Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic.

This bout will likely be as uncompetitive as the first clash as Lorenzo at 37 years of age has seen his day come and go and that just won't do against a hard-nosed competitor like Soto, who is still in his prime at 27.

From WBC President Jose Sulaiman:

Regarding the WBC interim super featherweight world championship fight between Humberto Soto and Francisco Lorenzo, the WBC Board of Governors has voted for the following:

1. The World Boxing Council officially confirms its decision of "No Contest", which was rendered at ringside on June 28. More...

It wasn't the busiest of Friday nights across the globe but there were a few good fights on tap and we begin in America where former IBF Lightweight Champion Paul Spadafora, 41-0-1 (16), started another comeback by winning every frame of an eight rounder against Shad Howard, 13-11-3 (6), at the Avalon Hotel in Erie, PA.

32 year old Spadafora was appearing in just his fifth contest since WBA titlist Leonard Dorin held him to a draw in their unification bout of 2003, which was coincidentally the last world title bout that "The Pittsburgh Kid" has taken part in.

At the Utopia Theatre in The Bronx, NY, light middle Andrey Tsurkan, 26-3 (17), bounced back from losing his NABF title via split decision to Yuri Foreman in December to stop ex-IBF welterweight title challenger Jessie Feliciano, 15-7-3 (9), in the eighth of a scheduled ten rounder.

The Bronx based 30 year old Russian fighter has now gone 7-1 over his last eight bouts and is steadily climbing the ladder towards a world title opportunity.

Also on the bill, well-traveled Polish heavyweight Albert Sosnowski, 43-1 (26), continued to build his resume with a fifth round finishing of Terrell Nelson, 8-5 (5). More...