© Mike Worden / Saddo Boxing

Moving his way further up the ladder of the featherweight rankings, WBC #3 ranked Juan Carlo Burgos, 22-0 (15), pulled out a scrappy ten round decision over Russia's Vyacheslav Gusev, 16-2 (3), on Friday night in order to retain his WBC CABOFE title.

Dubbed by Thompson Boxing Promotions as “New Blood 4”, the card from the Doubletree Hotel in Ontario, California had a good amount of the red stuff flowing. The majority of which was generated from under the right eye of Gusev after a right hand from Burgos opened a cut early in the first round.

While the cut appeared to bother Gusev early in the bout, the challenger managed to push through the adversity to give Burgos his toughest challenge to date. More...

Aside from Miguel Cotto's WBA title defense against Joshua Clottey on Saturday, there were a few good shows in America on Friday night.

Former WBA light welter Diosbelys Hurtado, 42-3-1 (25), won a 12 round unanimous decision over Manuel Garnica, 25-11 (13), in defense of the WBO Latino strap and Cuban heavyweight prospect Odlanier Solis, 14-0 (10), rubbed out Dominique Alexander, 18-7-1 (9), in the first round.

At The Palms in Las Vegas, NV, ex-WBA super bantam boss Bones Adams, 44-6-4 (20), returned to the ring after a year on the sidelines to stop Alex "Ali" Baba, 26-16-1 (19), in the eighth stanza.

At the HP Pavilion in San Jose, CA, ex-featherweight world champion Robert Guerrero, 24-1-1 (17), made his lightweight debut by stopping former USBA titlist Efren Hinojosa, 30-6-1 (17), in the eighth frame of a ten rounder. More...

WBO Welterweight Champion Paul Williams stepped up to light middle and caged the vacant WBO belt by stopping former three time 154 pound world titlist Verno Phillips in the eighth round at Citizens Bank Arena in Ontario, CA in the highest profile bout in America this weekend.

Williams overcame a bad cut from a headclash early on and used his massive height and reach advantage to good effect, keeping the much older Phillips at bay with hard shots to the body and head.

It was the constant body shots which seemed to take their toll on the former champion as he began to slow down later in the bout but Phillips also didn't have the power to trouble his far taller opponent despite not having much difficulty in hitting Williams when he did throw punches.

By the eighth round, Phillips was getting hurt and the bout was called to a halt before the ninth frame could begin to keep the 39 year old from further damage.

Williams wins the WBO Light Middle title, improving to 36-1 (27), while Phillips drops to 42-11-1 (21) after a brave performance in what could be the last big fight of his long career. More...