Rising Filipino contender Mark Jason Melligen dominated Gabriel Martinez of Mexico in ten rounds of their welterweight battle to win by unanimous decision at the Mandalay Events Center in Las Vegas moments ago to continue his climb towards the elite welterweight division. The judges scores were 99-91, 99-91 and 98-92 all for the Cebu-based Bacolod native Filipino boxer.
Melligen stablished the complexion of the fight early by outboxing and outpointing the game and tough Mexican whose previous lone loss was against the number one WBC welterweight contender Saul Alvarez. Martinez had no answer to Melligen's southpaw stance as time and again Melligen connects at Martinez with good left and right counters. Only in the 5th round where Martinez exhibited some semblance of the fight by connecting some good rights but the steady and highly confident Melligen took the onslaught calmly. In the 7th round, Melligen caught Martinez with a right hook to the jaw that wobbled the Mexican but Melligen failed to finish the round.
At the start of the 9th round, realizing that a knockout is the only way to victory, Martinez went for broke and connected with some solid rights and left to the surprised Melligen but the ALA stalwart calmly settle down and kept the Mexican's measure and coasted to until the end of the contest.
Melligen has now scored his 5th straight win and upped his record to 21-2-0 with 14 knockouts. Martinez got his second defeat for 27-2-1 record with 14 KOs.
Top photo: Referee Joe Cortez raises Mark Jason Melligen's hand after Melligen's victory over Martinez at the Mandalay Events Center in Las Vegas Saturday night.
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