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On Friday at Pabellon As Travesas in Vigo, Spain, Ivan Pozo recaptured the European Flyweight title with a ninth round technical decision over iron-chinned Christophe Rodrigues during a closely contested bout in front of 3,000 fans.
Rodrigues came into the bout as the flyweight champion of France and the far shorter southpaw from Beziers put the pressure on local man Pozo from the start.
Pozo, who held the European title in 2005 and unsuccessfully challenged for the WBO Belt in May, worked from the outside, setting up his combinations behind the jab but the forceful Frenchman burrowed inside to force a lot of exchanges on the inside.
The southpaw vs. orthodox pairing produced numerous head clashes and a few warnings to Rodrigues, which ultimately ended the contest in the ninth frame as an injury to the left eye of Pozo was judged to be too serious to allow the bout to continue.
Pozo was ahead on two of the three scorecards and thus declared the winner, much to the delight of the packed house.
The lanky 29 year old improves to 30-5-1 (19), while Rodrigues drops to 15-15-3 (2).
On Saturday the action in Spain was at Pebellon Municipal in Villarubia de Santiago as heavy-handed light middle Ivan Martinez, 20-3 (16), won his tenth straight contest by forcing a fifth round retirement of Bolivian veteran Benjamin Robles Murry, 13-35-4 (8).
There was a big card in Germany on Saturday as South American and WBO Latino Cruiserweight Champion Victor Emilio Ramirez, 14-1 (12), continued his meteoric rise by stopping previously undefeated WBO Intercontinental kingpin Alexander Alexeev, 16-1 (15), in the tenth round to annex the Interim WBO title.
The loss brings to a halt the victory train of Hamburg based Russian Alexeev, who had a big 2008 with wins against Rob Calloway, Louis Azille and Talmadge Griffis.
Ramirez, known as “El Tyson del Abasto” in his hometown of Buenos Aires, won his eighth straight bout and will now be in line to challenge for the full WBO belt, possibly against England’s Enzo Maccarinelli or America’s Johnathan Banks.
Also on the bill, WBC/WIBF Female Featherweight Champion Ina Menzer, 23-0 (9), stayed perfect with a ten round decision over Dutch veteran Esther Schouten, 22-5-1 (11), in a hard fought battle.
Middleweight Gennady Golovkin, 15-0 (12), of Hamburg made short work of Argentina’s top 160 pounder by stopping Javier Alberto Mamani, 35-8-1 (19), in the first round.
