Former world minimum weight challenger Rodel Mayol made one mistake and paid a heavy price when IBF light flyweight champion Ulises Solis nailed him with a cracking right hook that sent him crashing to the canvas to be counted out by referee John O’Brien at 1:13 of the eight round at the AllState Arena in Chicago.
Mayol appeared to be ahead after he dropped the champion with a vicious left hook at the end of an excellent combination in round six but referee O’Brien mysteriously ruled it a slip even as the ringside commentators said it was a clear knockdown as shown by several slo-motion replays. It reminded Filipino fight fans of the Czar Amonsot-Michael Katsidis WBO lightweight title fight when referee Jay Nady also ruled a clear knockdown as a slip.
Mayol looked a little tense in the early stages of the fight but once he loosened up in round four with a strong overhand right that stunned Solis he began to take charge and after the knockdown in round six a visibly groggy Solis held on until the bell.
Round seven saw the champion, cheered on by the predominantly Mexican crowd launch his own offensive with a flurry after Mayol stung him with another hard right forcing Solis to hold.
Trainer Kenny Adams, former trainer of the US Olympic boxing team, made the mistake of telling Mayol to go after Solis in an effort to try and finish him off which proved to be the wrong tactic. After connecting with a big right hand Mayol got careless and walked into a left which rocked his head back and Solis sensing he was hurt finished him off with a picture-perfect right that for the second time ended Mayol’s dream of winning a world title.
He had earlier lost the WBC minimum weight title to Eagle Kyowa, the Japan-based Thai where he controlled the fight in the early rounds but faded in the second half because of lack of proper training and lost by a unanimous decision on May 6, 2006.
Going into the fight against Solis who looked bigger and is a legitimate light flyweight, the little Filipino appeared to be a blown-up 108. Besides, he appeared to have been pushed into the title fight against a talented champion by his handlers after having only one fight after the Kyowa loss against a Japanese patsy, Masatsugu Okada, winning by a first round KO on September 18, 2006. With the loss, his first stoppage, Mayol dropped to 23-2 with 18 KO’s while Solis improved to 25-1 with 19 KO’s.
With the win Solis avenged the defeat of his elder brother Jorge Solis who was knocked out in the eighth round by Filipino ring idol Manny Pacquiao last April in San Antonio, Texas.
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