SULTAN DROPS CARABALLO 4 TIMES EN ROUTE TO UD VICTORY

Former world title challenger Jonas Sultan exposed hyped up Puerto Rican knockout artist Carlos Caraballo as having a glass chin by dropping the Boricua four times en route to winning by unanimous decision to capture the WBO Inter-Continental Belt at the Hulu Theatre at the Madison Square Garden in New York Saturday night (Sunday in Manila).

Caraballo showed elite skills and speed but precise shots by Sultan dropped the Puerto Rican in the second, third, sixth and ninth rounds. A debatable knockdown where Sultan's glove hit the canvas from a phantom shot by Caraballo in the third round somehow put the Puerto Rican in the fight going into the middle rounds.

Sultan drops Caraballo.

All three judges, Kevin Morgan, Tony Paolillo and Waleska Roldan had identical scores of 94 to 93 in favor of Sultan. PhilBoxing had it 95-91 in Sultan's favor.

Caraballo, who has never gone beyond six rounds, showed lot of fighting heart by going strong in the 7th and 8th rounds connecting with hard shots over Sultan who appeared to have gassed out. The 4th knockdown scored by Sultan in the 9th round however was just too much to overcome for Caraballo.

Sultan, who had a win over WBO bantamweight champion Johnriel Casimero, now improved his record to 18-5 with 11KOs while Caraballo absorbed his first defeat and dropped to 14-1, 14KOs.