Boxing News Boxing News
It took Guillermo Jones 15 years to win a world title, two years to defend it but only 11 rounds to retain his WBA cruiserweight crown last night at Arena Roberto Duran in Panama City.
The lanky former welterweight faced former world title challenger Valery Brudov of Russia and it didn’t take long for the two to shake off the rust from a collected three years out of action.
Jones studied the challenger over the first half of the bout, taking his time until the midway point when Brudov tried to come forward and negate the champion’s height advantage.
But Jones quickly stripped Brudov of any genuine ambition as the big Panamanian had no trouble finding the holes in his rival’s defense.
Brudov was countered time and time again by Jones and the Russian visitor was unable to put anything meaningful together in the face of immediate retaliation anytime he tried.
By the later frames, Brudov became cut and that is what caused the bout ultimately to be stopped at 2:16 of the 11th round.
Guillermo Jones retains his WBA title for the first time, improving to 37-3-2 (29), while Brudov sees a five bout win streak collapse, dropping to 38-3 (27).
The undercard saw local slugger Luis Concepcion, 22-1 (17), crush former WBA flyweight champ Denkaosan Kaovichit, 50-3-1 (20), in the first round to retain the Interim WBA title at flyweight.
In heavyweight action, ex-WBC champion Hasim Rahman, 49-7-2 (40), wiped out veteran Marcus McGee, 22-18 (11), in one round.
