LAS VEGAS — Australia’s Michael Katsidis came to the United States with a reputation as an all-action fighter.
He kept it well intact with a decision victory in a grueling, bloody brawl with Czar Amonsot of the Philippines on Saturday night at Mandalay Bay.
Katsidis was stronger and landed more punishing blows to retain his interim lightweight belt, despite a badly damaged left eye.
The fight, which was on the undercard of the Bernard Hopkins-Winky Wright light heavyweight championship fight, delivered a lot of action from the opening round. They came out brawling and never let up.
Katsidis, who is the mandatory challenger for full titleholder Juan Diaz, scored knockdowns in the second and 10th rounds.
In the second, he caught Amonsot with a perfect counter right and knocked him down. But when Katsidis rushed in to attack when the fight resumed, it appeared as though they clashed heads. Katsidis emerged with a damaged left eye that began to close almost immediately.
Referee Jay Nady, however, indicated that the damage was caused by a punch. Either way, the eye was a mess and giving Katsidis problems.
“He hit me with a head butt and elbow and then a punch,” Katsidis said of the way the eye was injured. “It was a tough fight, but that is the way I like to win them. It was great to fight in America for the first time. I didn’t feel any added pressure.
“I said I was going to introduce new blood to the sport and I guess you saw a lot of new blood.”
Katsidis was winning, but it looked like the fight might be stopped at any time because of the bleeding eye and bad swelling.
Katsidis, 26, perhaps sensing the fight might be stopped, was gunning for a knockout. In the 10th, he finally drove Amonsot to the canvas again with an unanswered flurry of punches, but Amonsot showed grit to survive.
The judges all had it for Katsidis, 116-110, 115-111 and 114-112. ESPN.com scored it 115-111 for Katsidis (23-0, 20 KOs).
“The fight was definitely tougher than I thought it would be. Then again they are always tougher than I think they will be,” said Katsidis, who entered the ring in his usual gladiator garb.
It was the second all-action fight of the year for Katsidis, who went to England and stopped Graham Earl in the fifth round for the vacant interim belt on Feb. 17. Both men were down in the wild fight of the year candidate.
Amonsot (18-3-1, 10 KOs), just 21, admitted defeat.
“He is very powerful,” said Amonsot, who had won his previous two fights in Las Vegas. “When he knocked me down the two times, I was OK. He is a dirty fighter, but he deserved the victory.”
Linares comes of age
Jorge Linares, just 21, arrived on the world stage in a big way, scoring a dominant 10th-round TKO of Oscar Larios (59-6-1, 37 KOs) to win a vacant interim featherweight title.
Linares (24-0, 15 KOs), who is from Venezuela but based in Japan, has gotten a lot of attention in Asia and in his homeland, and showed that the hype was justified.
He dismantled Larios, 30, of Mexico, popping him with hard combinations and working the body well.
Finally, in the 10th round, Linares, who turned pro at 17, dropped the former junior featherweight champion with a powerful left-right combination. Larios got up, but was unsteady and referee Vic Drakulich stopped the fight at 2:37.
The interim title was available because full beltholder Injin Chi is injured. He must face Linares when he returns.
• Super middleweight Librado Andrade (25-1, 19 KOs) crushed late substitute Ted Muller (19-12-2, 9 KOs), dominating him until the fight was stopped at 1:48 of the second round.
Andrade had a huge first round, nailing Muller with hard right hands and staggering him several times. It looked like Andrade might get referee Tony Weeks to step in, but the round ended with Muller in bad shape.
Andrade continued to hurt him in the second round. Another right badly hurt Muller and Weeks stopped it.
“The guy didn’t bring too much, but I was very well prepared,” Andrade said. “Now, I am looking for another title shot.”
Andrade, 28, was fighting for the first time since he lost an uncompetitive shutout decision to unified titleholder Mikkel Kessler in Denmark on March 24.
Muller, 34, lost his fifth in a row, including a ninth-round TKO loss to “Contender” star Peter Manfredo Jr. on May 11. Muller didn’t take the fight until Wednesday, when original opponent Ross Thompson fell out with a back injury.
• Demetrius Hopkins (27-0-1, 11 KOs) scored an easy win, scoring two-first round knockdowns en route to a first-round destruction of Jailer Berrio (11-3, 7 KOs) of Colombia.
The fight had barely begun when Hopkins dropped him with a right-left combination. Berrio made it to his feet and it was over a few seconds later when Hopkins knocked him down again with a right hand. Referee Joe Cortez didn’t bother to complete the count and called it off at 2:57.
For Hopkins, 26, the nephew of Bernard Hopkins, he may have been matched soft because he needed a confidence builder. Even though he was given a decision win against Steve Forbes when they met in March, the majority of ringside observers had Forbes as the clear winner.
Berrio was just what the doctor ordered — a slow, inexperienced opponent coming off a six-round decision loss in October.
• Junior welterweight Rock Allen (11-0, 7 KOs), a 2004 U.S. Olympian and prot?g? of Hopkins, won a shutout six-round decision against Ramiro Rivera (4-5, 3 KOs), who took a lot of punches but never went down even though he had been knocked out in all of his previous defeats.
Dan Rafael is the boxing writer for ESPN.com.
