By Mike Sloan in Las Vegas:On the undercard of the Pacquiao vs Marquez clash at the Mandalay Bay And Casino Resort, featherweight titlist Steven Luevano survived a fourth round knockdown and a crisp left hand in the eleventh that wobbled him to score a unanimous points decision win over opponent Terdsak Jandaeng. Luevano was the busier fighter throughout the contest and landed at a much higher rate and while Jandaeng kept things interesting in spurts, he was no match for the slightly superior Luevano. In the end, Luevano walked away with a lopsided decision win, being awarded the fights via tallies of 118-109 and 119-109 (twice).
The fight was much more competitive and closer than the official scorecards indicated, but there was no dispute as to who the victor was. Jandaeng’s face was a bloody, swollen mass of flesh by the time the final bell tolled and the Thai fighter was frustrated throughout the encounter. Still, Jandaeng was headstrong and though he walked through an avalanche of punches, he remained resilient and tried for the knockout until the very end.
Luevano, from La Puenta, CA, held onto his WBO 126 pound title and with the win he bolstered his record to 35-1 (15) and looks to start fighting the best the lightweight division has to offer. For Jandaeng, the tough Thai warrior dropped to 29-3 (19).
2004 Mexican Olympian Abner Mares needed less than a minute of the second round to take out Filipino Diosdado Gabi as he floored him twice in said stanza. Gabi couldn’t stand up to the power of Mares, as he was also hurt badly late in the first round by a straight right hand. Still a bit woozy from the strikes of the first round, Gabi was virtually a sitting duck in the second round and lasted just 49 seconds before referee Jay Nady halted the mugging.
Mares, who kept his unbeaten record in tact, felled Gabi with a corker of a right hand seconds into the second round, but Gabi was able to beat the count. However, the Filipino bantamweight was still seeing stars when the fight resumed and was caught amid a bombardment from Mares. Gabi stumbled into a neutral corner and dropped to his gloves and trunks, but when he climbed back onto his feet, Nady had seen enough and stopped it.
It was as impressive a win Mares could pull off at this juncture of his career; he now stands at 16-0 after scoring his tenth knockout. Gabi fell to 30-4-1 (22).
Lightweights David Diaz and Ramon Montano kicked off the televised portion of the card with an entertaining back-and-forth tussle. Montano, a young contender from Las Vegas, gave Diaz everything he had to offer but ultimately came up short as he lost a majority decision. Diaz was a tad sluggish early on in the affair but as the fight wore on he seized control and pounded out the win. Montano began eating leather at much more frequent pace late in the contest and Diaz’ accurate punching as well as his edge in power paved the way toward victory. In the end, Diaz’ experience and skill-set was too much for Montano to overcome and walked away with the decision. Robert Hoyle had it in favor of Diaz, who improved to 34-1-1 (17), by a margin of 97-93, as did Dave Moretti, who saw it 99-91. Glenn Trowbridge had it even at 95-95. For his efforts, the game Montano dropped to 15-5-2 (1).
Off-TV Bouts: Junior welterweight Danny Garcia obliterated Charles Wade, scoring a sensational one punch knockout just 43 seconds into their encounter. Wade ducked down and missed a loopy right hand and Garcia capitalized with a crippling left hook that detonated on his jaw. Wade, from Winston-Salem, North Carolina, crumbled onto the canvas, stumbled back up to his feet but fell back down, prompting referee Toby Gibson to waive off the contest. With the win, the Philadelphian bolstered his pro ledger to 4-0 with his fourth career knockout while Wade dipped to 4-5 (1).
Michael Farenas was awarded a third round TKO win over Baudel Cardenas when Cardenas was unable to continue after a flagrant low blow in the third round. Farenas scored two legitimate knockdowns in the previous stanza with body shots, but the featherweight Filipino went a tad too low on the Mexican. Cardenas was allotted the full five minutes to recover from the groin shot, but he was ravaged by pain and the fight was called off. The official time of the technical knockout (still the most ridiculous rule in boxing) was 2:40 of the third, allowing Farenas to improve to 20-2-2 with 18 KOs. Cardenas fell to 17-13-2 (6).
In what was the first bout of the afternoon, Esau Herrera and Byron Tyson dueled to a six round majority draw. Neither fighter was ever hurt or knocked down though they both threw plenty of punches. But neither junior middleweight seized control of the bout, therefore a draw was rendered. The official scores were 57-57 (twice) and 57-56 for Tyson. Herrera, from Mexico, now stands at 15-3-1 (8) while Tyson, out of Seattle, is at 9-0-2 (4).
Subscribe to feed
