World Weekend Boxing Roundup: Pacquiao, Gonzalez, Muira, Bellew

It was another installment of the Manny Pacquiao show on Sunday as the Filipino legend lit up Cotai Arena in Macau, China with a dominating WBO welterweight title defense.

Upstart American Chris Algieri, 20-1 (8), came into his challenge of Pacquiao, 57-5-2 (38), after unseating WBO light welter boss Ruslan Provodnikov in June but the lanky New Yorker saw his luck run out.

Algieri spent the entire contest backpedalling from the aggressive champion, producing several slips on the canvas that were ruled knockdowns but there was no mistaking the last three floorings as Pacquiao found range with big punches to produce an exceptionally wide points victory.

On the undercard, Jessie Vargas, 26-0 (9), retained his WBA light welter belt with a hard fought points verdict over former WBC lightweight boss Antonio DeMarco, 31-4-1 (23).

Vargas displayed grit and skill to keep the oncoming DeMarco at bay and should be able to keep the title for quite some time.

Also in Macau, WBO featherweight champ Vasyl Lomachenko, 3-1 (1), put on a masterful display in outboxing challenger Chonlatarn Piriyapinyo, 52-2 (33).

Two-time Olympic gold medallist Lomachenko was simply too fast with too much variety for the game Thai, who was down in the fourth and lost every round on the scorecards.

On Saturday, the action in Japan was at the International Swimming Pool complex in Yokohama with two world title contests on tap.

WBC flyweight champion Roman Gonzalez, 41-0 (35), continued his impressive run with a stoppage victory over ex-OPBF titlist Rocky Fuentes, 35-8-2 (20).

Former WBA light fly and minimumweight king Gonzalez was too much for Fuentes, who couldn’t recover from getting dropped in the sixth round.

The sixth was also a good round for WBC super feather champ Takashi Miura, 28-2-2 (21), who retained his crown for the third time by halting the hard-punching Edgar Puerta, 23-5-1 (19), who was also floored in the first frame and sees a 12 bout win streak snapped.

At the Echo Arena in Liverpool, England, cruiserweight Tony Bellew, 23-2-1 (14), banged out a split decision victory in a rematch with Nathan Cleverly, 28-2 (14), in a WBO title eliminator.

The pair of former light heavyweights seemed evenly matched during the first half of the contest until Cleverly seemed to tire and was battered on the ropes in the latter rounds.

Bellew should find a much harder opponent in the form of WBO champion Marco Huck when the two clash next year.

Scott Quigg, 30-0-2 (22), retained his WBA super bantam belt with a wide but difficult points win over very tough Japanese champion Hidenouri Othake, 22-2-3 (9), who suffered a bad cut above right eye in the later rounds.

Jamie McDonnell, 25-2-1 (12), kept his WBA bantam strap with a tenth round stoppage over late replacement Javier Nicolas Chacon, 20-3 (5).

Former Olympic gold medallist James DeGale, 20-1 (14), looked impressive in stopping ex-world title challenger Marco Antonio Periban, 20-3-1 (13), in the third round at super middleweight.

DeGale is now the mandatory challenger for the IBF title, currently held by Carl Froch. Froch has gone on record saying that he next wants a big fight in Las Vegas, where a clash with DeGale is unlikely to occur, but must agree to face the Londoner by December 31 or give up the IBF crown.