It was a small but boisterous crowd of 7,154 inside the MGM Grand Garden Arena to witness a classic battle between two warriors as Marcos Maidana barely won a majority decision over Mexican legend Erik Morales, who had a back-to-the-future-like performance and proved that he still has some fight left in him. It was an action-packed bout from the beginning. The eye of Morales immediately became swollen and shut in the first round after Maidana landed a well-placed uppercut. Taking that into consideration makes the performance from Morales even more heroic.
From then on, the bout went back and forth as both men were willing to exchange shots and fight toe to toe. Maidana was throwing his typical hard winging punches from all angles at close range, while Morales was more conventional and technical in his attack, picking his spots. In the end, one judge scored the bout even at 114-114 while the remaing judges scored it 116-112 for Maidana, who bounces back from his defeat to WBA jr. welterweight champion Amir Khan and improves to 30-2 (27 KO’s). Despite the misleading scorecards of two of the judges, Morales revived his stock in the sport with his performance, although his his record falls to 51-7 (35 KO’s).
RELIVE THE ACTION IN FIGHTHYPE’S MAIDANA VS MORALES ROUND-BY-ROUND RESULTS
In the co-main event, Robert “The Ghost” Guerrero tamed a high-strung Micheal Katsidis to win the interim WBA and WBO jr. welterweight titles. Guerrero’s southpaw stance and long reach allowed him to easily keep Katsidis at bay with a constant jab. Katsidis appeared frustrated and was deducted 2 points for low blows in round 8. Guerrero himself would lose a point in round 9 for also landing a shot south of the border. To his credit, Katsidis kept the bout interesting in the final rounds as he started to attack the body of Guerrero relentlessly, landing some clean shots in the process. The decision was in little doubt, but there was still hope from Australian fans that Katsidis could land a come-from-behind knockout shot. It was not to be, however, as Guerrero took home the belts with a unamous decision by scores of 117-108, 118-106 and 118-107. With the victory, Guerrero goes to 29-1-1 (18 KO’s) while Katsidis falls short in yet another high-profile fight and drops to 27-4 (22 KO’s).
RELIVE THE ACTION IN FIGHTHYPE’S GUERRERO VS KATSIDIS ROUND-BY-ROUND RESULTS
If you watched any boxing on TV on Friday night, you know that it was a night of upsets. Heading into Saturday evening’s action, there were several fights on the cards where an upset could’ve been predicted. However, no one outside of the Japanese contingent in the building thought that the night’s biggest upset would be Nobuhiro Ishida defeating James Kirkland. If any fan was told that the fight ended in the first round, they would’ve immediately assumed that Kirkland used his seek-and-destroy style to easily stop the former interim champion. That, however, is exactly the opposite of what happened. On three different occasions, the light-hitting Ishida landed crisp shots that sent Kirkland to the canvas. On the final knockdown, Kirkland appeared to be quick to rise from the canvas, but referee Joe Cortez had seen enough, held him down, and waved off the fight. It was such a shocking upset that HBO admitted that they didn’t even have a Japanese interpreter on hand for the post-fight interview. Kirkland, who suffered the first defeat of his career, now falls to 27-1 (24 KO’s). Ishida, who has never been stopped but was seemingly thrown into the bout expecting that he would be, improved his record to 23-6-2 (8 KO’s). There’s no doubt that he should recieve a heroes welcome when he returns home to his homeland that was devastated by a tsunami.
RELIVE THE ACTION IN FIGHTHYPE’S ISHIDA VS KIRKLAND ROUND-BY-ROUND RESULTS
The pay-per-view televisied portion of the card kicked off with former jr. welterweight champion Paulie Malignaggi defeating Jose Cotto via unanimous decision. Cotto did land some nice left hooks in the early part of the fight, but Malginaggi, working off of his jab, was the busier and more flashy fighter and easily won round after round behind a constant jab and combinations. In the end, Malignaggi won the unanamous decision with scores of 99-91, 99-91 and 97-93, improving his record to 29-4 (6 KO’s). He’s now 2-0 under the banner of Golden Boy Promotions. Just a few fights ago, Malignaggi appeared to be disillusioned and frustrated with the sport of boxing, but now he appears to be back to his old self and having fun again.
In the special attraction prior to the start of the pay-per-view telecast, former champion Nate Campbell ended his brief retirement only to become the biggest name on the resume of unbeaten jr. welterweight Danny Garcia. Early on it appeared as though Campbell may have been able to give the young prospect a boxing lesson, but Garcia got going with the speedy combos he has become known for. The second half of the bout was dominated by Garcia and he got the unanamous decision by scores of 100-90, 99-91, and 98-92, improving his unblemished record to 21-0 (14 KO’s). Campbell drops to 33-8-1 (25 KO’s) and is likely headed to retirement again.
In his first trip to the US, you’d have a hard time convincing unbeaten German cruiserweight Rakhim Chakhiev that Jolly is a good tasting candy product as srappy veteran Harvey Jolly from Detroit landed some early jabs and right hands that did not seem to leave a good taste in Chakhiev’s mouth. Rakhim got things going in round two, however, dropping Jolly with a body shot early in the round. Jolly would then duck into a left hook that put him down and forced referee Joe Cortez to call a halt to the action at 2:18. Chakhiev improves to 9-0 (7 KO’s) while Jolly now falls to 12-16-1 (6 KO’s).
In the opening bout of the night, Canadian jr. middleweight prospect Mikael Zewski remained unbeaten with a four-round split decision win over San Jose, California’s Clint Coronel. It was an odd contrast in scoring depending on what you like to see. scorecards where 60-54 and 59-55 for Zewski, while a third judge had it 60-54 for Coronel. FightHype scored it 57-57 as Coronel pressed the action while Zewski was more crisp with his combinations. Zewski improves to 9-0 (5 KO’s) while Coronel falls to 4-2-2 (1 KO).
And finally, fight fans, since everyone always asks me, “What do you think these guys make?” The evening’s purses were as follows:
Marcos Maidana – $500,000 Erik Morales – $250,000, plus percentages of promotional profit and Mexico TV revenue Michael Katsidis – $250,000 Rober Guerrero – $125,000 James Kirkland – $35,000 Nobuhiro Ishida – $35,000 Paulie Malignaggi – $75,000 Jose Cotto – $30,000 Danny Garcia – $20,000 Nate Campbell – $35,000 Rakhim Chakhiev – $25,000 Havey Jolly – $5,000
