In one of the most shocking upsets of the year thus far, WBA super feather champ Jorge Linares was stopped in the first round by challenger Juan Carlos Salgado today at Yoyogi Gymnasium in Tokyo.

Both men came into the contest undefeated but Tokyo based Venezuelan Linares was a former WBC feather and current WBA super feather kingpin who had stopped his last six adversaries early and was expected to win big.

Mexico City based Salgado had turned away respectable competition such as Ivan Valle and Marcos Licona during his career but had not come close to facing a world class operator before this opportunity.

During the first round, Salgado caught Linares unaware with a full-blooded right hand that decked the champion. Linares was soon on his pants again after the next assault and while he beat the count, the Tokyo resident was declared to be in no shape to continue and the contest stopped at 1:13 of the frame. More...

There were a few good cards this weekend in Australasia, with two decent shows Down Under and a bill in Japan.

The action last night took place at Rugby Park in Gisborne, New Zealand as Auckland's "Mountain Warrior", Shane Cameron, saw off his second straight American opponent, stopping Robert Davis, 32-10 (20), in the 11th round.

31 year old Cameron, 23-1 (20), retained the IBF Pan-Pacific Heavyweight title with the win, coming after a decision victory over Terry Smith last September in Christchurch for the WBO Oriental and WBO Asia Pacific belts.

Cameron has held a myriad of regional titles and to date has only lost to American based Nigerian, Friday Ahunya, when "Friday the 13th" stopped him in the twelfth and final round in Auckland in November, 2007. More...

WBA Featherweight kingpin Chris John, 44-0-1 (22), went on the road last night for the third time over the course of his nine title defenses and the 29 year old Indonesian stylist outpointed local sensation Hiroyuki Enoki, 27-1-2 (19), after twelve rounds.

29 year old Enoki came into the bout as the OPBF titlist and had never lost a bout although he had been held to a draw in his most recent outing against Japanese Champ Takahiro Aoh, during a WBA title eliminator in April.

John proved to have too much in the arsenal for Enoki to overcome as the quick handed Semarang man cruised to victory by wide margins of 118-110, twice, and 117-111.

Also on the bill, lightweight Ryota Kajiki, 12-4 (7), decisioned Nobuo Maruyama, 9-3 (1), after eight rounds.