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It was a night of fireworks in the squared circle as three of four world title contests taking place on Saturday evening ended inside the distance.
In America, heavy-handed WBA welter champ Keith Thurman went to war with former titlist Luis Collazo at the USF Sundome in Tampa, FL before opening up a bad cut above the challenger’s eye in the seventh round, prompting Team Collazo to prevent their man from answering the bell for the eighth frame.
After staying on the outside and attempting to potshot Thurman in the first two rounds, southpaw Collazo began to pressure the champion and that led to a lot of toe-to-toe exchanges.
Both fighters scored well to the head and body but Thurman had better hand-speed and power. Collazo nearly pulled off a massive upset with just seconds to go in the fifth round when he dug a powerful left to Thurman’s ribs.
The champ’s knees buckled and he reeled around the ring as Collazo gave chase and threw everything he had to try and finish off Thurman, who was shaken by several more body shots but was saved by the bell.
Thurman was a lot more cautious from that point on, using movement and roundhouse punches to keep Collazo at bay. Until the challenger got cut by a punch in the seventh, this was the hardest fight of Thurman’s career and not one that he was certain to have won had the contest continued.
Collazo, now 36-7 (19), shows no signs of slowing down at age 34 and remains a difficult opponent for any of the titlists at 147 pounds.
Thurman moves to 26-0 (22), and afterward called out reigning divisional kingpin Floyd Mayweather Jr.
Should that bout happen, Thurman definitely stands a puncher’s chance to pull off a shocker but given that he was hit a lot by both Collazo and Robert Guerrero, the more accurate Mayweather would have little trouble finding the target.
Over in Manchester, England, local lightweight Terry Flanagan, 28-0 (11), captured the vacant WBO crown at The Velodrome when America’s Jose Zepeda, 23-1 (20), could not answer the bell for the third round due to a left arm injury.
Surprisingly, Flanagan looked to be at least a weight class larger than Zepeda, who has competed at a welterweight for most of his career.
In the first round of this all-southpaw clash, Zepeda worked well behind the jab, backing up Flanagan and looking to land the power left. Flanagan was focusing on countering with a left over the top of Zepeda’s jab and looked a bit ragged and wild.
Flanagan was more composed in the second frame, holding his ground and working his own jab. During one exchange, the fighters both missed big left hands at the same time with the arms connecting into each other at full force.
For the rest of the round, Zepeda became tentative and was backing up with Flanagan starting to connect with shots. After the bell, Zepeda went back to his corner indicating something was wrong with his left arm.
After much consultation with ringside officials, Team Zepeda determined their boxer could not fight on, giving Flanagan the victory by TKO.
Afterward, Flanagan reportedly stated his desire for a rematch and given the nature of the contest, it could be mandated by the WBO.
There was an even shorter all-left handed fight at Getec Arena in Magdeburg, Germany as WBA “regular” heavyweight king Ruslan Chagaev, 34-2-1 (21), made the first title defense of his second championship reign.
On the other side of the ring was 30 year old former world title challenger Franceso Pianeta, 31-2-1 (17), who held a youth and height advantage over the stocky 36 year old Chagaev.
In the first frame, Chagaev used a good jab and pressure to close distance from the start and was able to take two hard left hands from Pianeta with no problems.
Pianeta wasn’t using his jab enough to keep the champion at bay, allowing Chagaev to get within range – something that had disastrous consequences for the challenger in the middle of the round.
With his back to the ropes, Pianeta was struck with two big lefts to the side of the head and sank down to his knees. It looked like he’d stay there but the Italian born fighter showed courage in rising late to beat the count.
Pianeta recovered, even landing a decent uppercut, but was caught again on the ropes with a big shot with just seconds left. Pianeta collapsed and got back up but was judged to be in no condition to continue at 2:57 of the first round.
At The Waterfront Hotel in Cebu City, Philippines, WBO light fly boss Donnie Nietes, 36-1-4 (21), turned away the challenge of Mexico’s Francisco Rodriguez, 17-3 (11), during 12 rounds of combat.
Just 22 years of age, former WBO and IBF minimumweight champ Rodriguez was much younger and taller than the 33 year old champion, who was putting his belt at risk for the seventh occasion.
Rodriguez started well, focusing on the body but Nietes began to use short punches on the inside in an effective counter strategy the won him the middle rounds. The fast pace of the bout and a hand injury began to wear on the champion in the later rounds and Rodriguez took control of the contest.
Nietes found his second wind in the 12th and final frame, outfighting the challenger and impressing the judges, who awarded the local man a 119-109, 118-110, 115-113 unanimous decision.
