Boxing: Unbeaten Spence returns from horrific crash to dominate Garcia

WASHINGTON -- Errol Spence overpowered challenger Danny Garcia in his first fight since surviving a near-fatal rollover car accident to retain his World Boxing Council and International Boxing Federation welterweight titles on Saturday.

The 30-year-old Spence put on a virtuoso performance winning almost every round in a 147-pound homecoming fight at AT&T Stadium in Dallas, Texas.

The undefeated Spence, who suffered serious injuries after being thrown from his car in the drunk-driving smash, won by a unanimous decision proving he is still the same boxer as before the accident in October 2019.

"The moment is surreal, especially coming back from my accident a year ago," Spence said. "Be patient with me. This was a comeback fight for me and I had to shake off some cobwebs."

After the fighters felt each other out during the first few rounds, Spence seized control in the middle rounds to win on all three scorecards by scores of 116-112, 116-112 and 117-111.

Spence improved to 27-0 with 21 knockouts while Garcia fell to 36-3, with 21 KOs.

Spence, a southpaw, monopolized Garcia with his jab and relentless pressure, not allowing the challenger to make use of his pre-fight game plan.

"He was breaking him down and taking the fight out of him. His jab is the key to everything," said Spence's trainer Derrick James.

Garcia had one of his best rounds in the second. They got into a heated exchange at the end of the round when Garcia hit Spence after the bell.

Spence hurt Garcia with a couple of punches in the third and by the fourth he was controlling the tempo.

"In training camp I knew I was going to be good. I am back," said Spence.

The 32-year-old Garcia had been hoping to carry some momentum over from his previous two straight wins and become champion again for the first time since 2017.

"He was just a better man tonight. No excuses," said Garcia. "I fought a hard, tough fight. He had a good jab and that was the key to the fight."

Garcia, a counter-puncher, was too conservative to do any serious damage. He spent the majority of fight on the defensive, blocking combinations and stepping sideways to avoid any huge shots.

By the eighth round Garcia was retreating to the ropes desperately trying to land any punches while Spence just kept up the attack.

Garcia's corner told him to go for the big punch but he seemed preoccupied with trying to just stay on his feet and preserve his record of never having been knocked down in his career.

Agence France-Presse

Boxing: Golovkin survives scare to regain IBF title

NEW YORK -- Gennady Golovkin reclaimed his IBF title on Saturday, defeating Sergiy Derevyanchenko by a unanimous decision in a bruising middleweight fight at Madison Square Garden.

Golovkin knocked Derevyanchenko down in the first round and cut him over the eye in the second but had to dig deep to beat the stubborn Ukrainian, who made his opponent look all of his 37 years.

"It's a bad day for me but a huge experience," said Golovkin. "After the first round I didn't think this was an easy fight. I told myself this is a tough fight."

With the vacant middleweight title on the line, Derevyanchenko fought a brave fight, landing solid body shots and getting Golovkin in trouble several times. 

He recovered quickly from the knockdown but it didn't help him in the scoring department in what was a surprisingly close fight.

One judge scored it 114-113 and the other two had it 115-112 for Golovkin.

The 37-year-old Golovkin improved to 40-1-1 as he regained the belt he first won in 2015. 

Golovkin defended the title with wins against Dominic Wade, Kell Brook and Daniel Jacobs and a draw against Mexico's Canelo Alvarez.

Golovkin was stripped of the IBF title last year when he failed to make a mandatory defence against Derevyanchenko, opting instead for a rematch with Alvarez -- who handed Golovkin the first defeat of his career.

The 33-year-old Derevyanchenko, who falls to 13-2 with 10 KOs, was hoping to score a huge upset and dim the prospects for a third Golovkin-Alvarez bout in 2020.

The shadow of another Alvarez fight has loomed large over this bout. 

Alvarez is making a November 2 return to the ring against light heavyweight titleholder Sergey Kovalev in a fight that will see Alvarez move up two weight divisions.

Golovkin, who contends that Alvarez "ran away" from a rematch, was clearly wearied by repeated questions about Alvarez in the build up to Saturday's bout.

Speaking in the ring immediately after the fight, Golovkin said would have to improve before he fights Alvarez again.

"Right now I know exactly what I need. I understand I need more," he said. "Everything is ready. Just call to Canelo and if he says yes, let's do it."

Blood flows

This may not have been the long awaited trilogy showdown but it was a surprisingly entertaining fight.

Golovkin started quickly in the opening round, landing strong left hooks and then knocking Derevyanchenko down with a grazing right to the top of the head.

In the second round, Derevyanchenko started bleeding from a nasty cut over the right eye that referee Harvey Dock mistakenly called a head butt. 

Video replays showed the cut came from a vicious left hook to the brow that had Derevyanchenko pawing at his eye to try and wipe the blood off.

Once the blood started to flow, Derevyanchenko went to work. Down a 10-8 round from the knockdown and bleeding from a potential fight stopping cut he showed more urgency.

Golovkin was the aggressor through the middle rounds but Derevyanchenko managed to counterpunch effectively. When Golovkin tried to cut off the ring, Derevyanchenko did a good job of spinning out of trouble and throwing punches on the move.

Every time Golovkin appeared to get Derevyanchenko in trouble, the Ukrainian dug deep and battled back with a sense of determination and a steady volley of punches.

Both fighters landed solid punches in a furious 10th round. Derevyanchenko had Golovkin in trouble after a right hook and a right uppercut but Golovkin came back and connected on a couple of blows at the bell. 

By the 12th round, Golovkin looked the more tired of the two but he had won enough rounds early on and scored the knockdown, which allowed him to take the close decision.

source: news.abs-cbn.com

Boxing: IBF titleholder Commey beats Beltran with 8th round KO

SAN DIEGO - Richard Commey knocked down Ray Beltran four times en route to a dominant eighth round technical knockout victory in an IBF lightweight fight on Friday.

The pair were supposed to fight for Commey's 135-pound title but that was scuttled after Beltran couldn't make the weight at Thursday's weigh-in.

The 32-year-old Commey, of Ghana, ended the fight when Beltran walked into a crushing left hook to the chin that sent the Mexican flying backwards across the ring. 

A dazed Beltran got up but the referee stopped the fight, putting an end to the lopsided bout at the Pechanga Casino in Temecula, California.

Commey knocked Beltran down twice in the first round -- first with a right hand halfway through the round, and then again moments later while he had him pinned on the ropes.

In the fifth, Commey hit Beltran with a short left hook on the nose that sent him to the canvas for the third time. It looked like the referee might step in and stop the fight, but Beltran worked his way off the ropes and was able to continue.

This was the fifth straight win for Commey after back to back losses.

The planned title fight was thrown into chaos when Beltran badly missed weight on Thursday, coming in at 136.8 pounds.

Organizers fined Beltran $40,000 with $20,000 going to the boxing commission and $20,000 being added to Commey's purse of $350,000.

Commey, who improved to 29-2, with 26 knockouts, won a vacant world title by second-round knockout of Isa Chaniev on February 2.

However during that fight he suffered a right hand injury that ended a title unification bout with pound-for-pound king Vasiliy Lomachenko in April.

Lomachenko ultimately faced WBA mandatory challenger Anthony Crolla, knocking him out in the fourth round. 

Beltran dropped to 36-9-1 as he was seeking to win a world title for the second time after having won a vacant belt by decision over Paulus Moses in February 2018.

On the undercard, undefeated Carlos Adams won his 18th straight fight with a unanimous decision victory over Patrick Day in a junior middleweight bout.

gph/rma 

source: news.abs-cbn.com

Boxing: Ruiz stuns Joshua to become world heavyweight champion

Andy Ruiz Jr. dethroned British title-holder Anthony Joshua with a stunning seventh-round stoppage at New York's Madison Square Garden on Saturday to become the first Mexican-American world heavyweight champion.

Joshua, previously undefeated and fighting for the first time in the United States, was defending his IBF, WBA and WBO titles but was knocked down four times in the fight before the referee waved off the contest in the seventh.

Ruiz had not been given much chance of beating the champion given he had just five full weeks to prepare after Joshua's scheduled opponent, Jarrell Miller, tested positive performance-enhancing drugs.

Joshua said the defeat was hard to take but that he would be back.

"Boxing is a tough sport. I trained hard, I stayed dedicated. And I just got beat by a good fighter tonight," he said. "It'll be interesting to see how far he goes but good luck to him.

"I gotta bounce back. This is all part of the journey. Fighter by heart, boxer by trade."

Ruiz was dropped to the canvas in the third but the heavy brawler came back to down the Brit in the same round and Joshua was lucky to survive.

Joshua appeared to recover and worked his jab well over the next few rounds but Ruiz landed big body shots in the sixth to put the champion on the back foot.

Joshua went down again in a flurry of Ruiz punches with nearly two minutes left in the seventh and while the British fighter got off his knees just in time to beat the count his legs looked like jelly as he made his way to a neutral corner.

The referee asked him if he was okay to continue before waving his arms to end the fight, prompting wild celebrations in the ring by Ruiz and his trainers. 

(Writing by Jahmal Corner in Los Angeles, Additional reporting by Nick Mulvenney; Editing by Peter Rutherford)

source: news.abs-cbn.com

Truax shocks DeGale with majority decision

LONDON -- American Caleb Truax stunned Britain's former Olympic champion James DeGale on a majority decision to win the IBF world super-middleweight title in London on Saturday.

The 31-year-old DeGale was making the fourth defence of his title in his first fight on home soil for three years, but the 2008 Beijing gold medallist was condemned to just the second defeat of his career.

Two judges scored in favour of Truax, the American ahead 115-112 and 116-112 on those cards, with a third judge scoring the fight as a draw as DeGale was dethroned by the challenger.

"Crazy. I can't believe it. I've got to go back to the drawing board and change things. I thought I won it but I have to go back and sort a couple things," DeGale told BT Sport.

It was DeGale's first bout since surgery on his right shoulder following his bruising draw against Badou Jack in January, but Truax refused to adhere to his underdog tag and offered constant pressure.

Truax, 34, unleashed a series of fierce blows against DeGale in round five that left the British fighter bloodied and up against the ropes, with the American then catching his foe with a heavy uppercut in the 10th.

DeGale launched a spirited response in the final two rounds but Truax stood firm before sinking to his knees in anticipation of a victory that was confirmed moments later.

"We figured he'd try and jump me and I'd just weather the storm and that's what I did. He was sleeping and now he's going to have nightmares about me," Truax told BBC Radio 5 Live.

"All week all I heard was who he's going to fight next. Well guess what those fights are mine now."

source: news.abs-cbn.com

Golovkin edges Jacobs in rare decision to defend titles

NEW YORK - Gennady "GGG" Golovkin, the most fearsome knockout artist of this era, was pushed to the limit by Daniel Jacobs before retaining his world middleweight titles by decision at Madison Square Garden on Friday.

Jacobs, known as "Miracle Man" since coming back from bone cancer five years ago, ended the unbeaten Golovkin's streak of 23 knockouts in a row in a battle that went to the scorecards for the first time since 2008 for the Kazakh champion.

Two judges scored it 115-112, with the third making it 114-113 in favor of Golovkin, who retained his WBC, WBA, IBF and IBO middleweight crowns.

Golovkin knocked Jacobs down in the fourth with a double dose of rights, but as the fight wore on Jacobs confused the Kazakh by sliding into a southpaw stance, scoring on stinging combinations, holding his own against the dangerous power of the champion.

After a cautious, feeling out in the first two rounds, the bout blossomed into a fascinating battle with the fighters engaging freely in a thrilling duel to the finish.

Golovkin improved his record to 37-0, while Brooklyn native Jacobs dropped to 32-2.

(Editing by Sudipto Ganguly)

source: news.abs-cbn.com

Frampton wins slugfest over Santa Cruz to claim WBA title

NEW YORK -- Carl Frampton defeated Mexico's Leo Santa Cruz by a majority decision Saturday to claim the WBA featherweight crown and become the first boxer from Northern Ireland to win titles in two divisions.

The challenger Frampton improved to 23-0 with 14 knockouts as he had to overcome a height and weight disadvantage in one of the few times in his career he has moved up to fight at 126 pounds.

"It is a dream come true," said Frampton, who was born in Belfast. "I had a dream of winning a world title and I won it.

"I won it with my heart, not with my head. I got my hand raised."

The 29-year-old Frampton controlled the fight between the two undefeated boxers in the early rounds, landing a punishing left hook in the second round that sent the champ backpedaling across the ring.

He then held on for the win as Santa Cruz gained steam in the middle rounds before the two closed it out by exchanging heavy blows in the middle of the ring as the final bell rang.

One judge scored it even, 114-114, while the other two gave it to Frampton 117-111 and 116-112.

Frampton previously held the IBF and WBA super-bantamweight titles.

Frampton punctuated his impressive early round performance by staggering the champion in the second round with a left hook. His short counter shot slammed into the right side of Santa Cruz's head, sending the Mexican stumbling backwards into the ropes with 45 seconds left in the round.

Frampton then padded his lead by winning the next three rounds before Santa Cruz turned it on in the sixth, which proved to be one of his best rounds of the fight as he landed some solid combination punches.

But Santa Cruz's inability to score enough points in the early going caught up to him as Frampton did not tire in the later rounds.

- 'Get him in rematch' -

"He has a difficult style, but we know his style and will get him in the rematch," Santa Cruz said.

Santa Cruz had considered pulling out of the fight a few months ago because his father and trainer, Jose Santa Cruz, is battling bone cancer.

But dad was at his son's side on Saturday night as the trainer continues to wage the fight of his life against the disease.

Leo Santa Cruz (32-1-1, 18 knockouts) suffered the first defeat of his career, losing the belt he won also by a majority decision when he beat Abner Mares last August. He defended it five months ago when he stopped Kiko Martinez in five rounds.

Frampton won the 126 pound title despite giving away two inches in height and four inches in reach to Santa Cruz.

He is now 5-0 in title fights and 8-0 in fights above 122 pounds.

The crowd of 9,062 at the Barclays Center arena included four-time major championship winning golfer Rory McIlroy.

source: www.abs-cbnnews.com

Riots erupt after Pinoy fighter wins title in Argentina

A riot erupted in an Argentine ring Saturday after Filipino world title hopeful Johnriel Casimero stopped warhorse Luis Alberto Lazarte for the interim IBF light-flyweight crown.

Disgruntled spectators and diehard followers of the 40-year-old Lazarte threw chairs and debris onto the ring after the 21-year-old Casimero was declared winner, according to reports gathered by InterAKTV.

Lazarte was on queer street in the ninth round after being floored twice and was knocked down again by Casimero in the tenth stanza. The fight took place at the Club Once Unidos in the exotic city of Mar Del Plata, which is the hometown of Lazarte.

Casimero and his handlers were caught off-guard when the commotion took place and security personnel could not do anything to stop the melee.

Cebu kingmaker Sammy Gello-ani, who formerly served as the right-hand man of Tony Aldeguer, accompanied Casimero to Argentina.

It was also in Mar Del Plata where Morris East defended and lost the WBA super-lightweight title to Juan Martin Coggi almost 20 years ago.

source: interaksyon.com