Boxing In South America: Saturday Night Results

ByAlejandro Tostado

The big action last night in The Land of Silver took place Polideportivo Carlos Cerutti in Cordoba, Argentina as former WBO super feather champ Jorge Barrios made the jump to the lightweight division with great success.

“La Hiena” tangled with experienced Panamanian Moises Castro over 12 scheduled rounds for the vacant Interim WBO Latino belt in front of a pro-Barrios crowd of over 3,000.

Castro proved difficult to land flush against as “La Cobrita” went defensive and gave tough angles from a southpaw stance, frustrating Barrios for rounds at a time.

But the world class experience of Barrios shone through as the 33 year old from Tigre controlled the pace of the bout and simply outworked Castro enroute to posting a 120-110, 119-108 and 119-112 unanimous decision victory.

Barrios improves to 48-4-1 (34) and gains a foothold in the lightweight division with the Interim WBO Latino strap now around his waist. Castro loses his third decision in a row to fall to 27-12-4 (13), having gone up against a tough trio of Barrios, Jose Alfaro and Roinet Caballero since April.

On the undercard, lightweights Israel Hector Enrique Perez, 23-2 (13), and Alberto Leopoldo Santillan, 15-3 (4), went to war over ten rounds with Perez coming out on top via close unanimous decision.

Heading to Uruguay, there were two title fights on tap at Palacio Penarol in the capital city of Montevideo.

The top women’s light flyweight in the world, Argentina’s Yesica Yolanda Bopp, 10-0 (4), retained her WBA Female crown with a ten round UD over Mexican champ Ibeth Zamora Silva, 5-2 (0).

Slugging Colombian visitor Leli Luz Florez, 14-3 (7), put the first loss on the record of local hero Chris Namus, 9-1 (2), stopping “Bombon Asesino” in the very first round to win the Interim WBC Female light welter title.

Local man Caril Herrera, 25-1 (15), won his fifth in a row following a IBF super flyweight title eliminator loss last year by posting a six round points win over Federico Cesar Devesa, 6-3 (4), at super feather.