Something for everyone on busy boxing Saturday

Charlo, Inoue, Munguia all win; Silva upsets Chavez Jr.

It was a very busy boxing Saturday. Now that I’ve watched it all, here’s what happened.

Charlo pounds Macias

Jermall Charlo kept pounding and pounding and pounding on unheralded underdog Juan Macias Montiel but he just would not go anywhere. Montiel took combinations, body shots, head shots, right and lefts. He took tremendous punishment round after round almost to the astonishment of Charlo and anyone else watching the Showtime main event.

Montiel showed as much as heart as you will ever see a fighter display in a boxing ring, so much so that Charlo had to pay homage to him after retaining his WBC middleweight world title for the fourth time in one-sided fashion at the Toyota Center in his hometown of Houston.

The judges had it 120-108, 119-109 and 118-109 for Charlo, but those wide scores do not do justice to the impressive fighting heart Montiel displayed.

I wrote the fight night story on the fight for The Ring magazine website. Please read that story here: https://www.ringtv.com/623233-jermall-charlo-goes-the-distance-with-juan-macias-montiel-defends-wbc-middleweight-title/

Cruz routs Vargas

In the co-feature of Charlo-Macias, lightweight Isaac “Pitbull” Cruz continued to assert himself as a rising contender with a clear unanimous decision over former junior lightweight world titlist and Mexican countryman Francisco Vargas.

The judges scored it 100-90, 99-90 and 97-92 for Cruz, who began making a name for himself by stepping up his level of opposition in his previous two bouts with a sensational first-round knockout of former world title challenger Diego Magdaleno last October followed by a competitive unanimous decision victory over Jose Matias Romero on March 12.

Vargas, although in the twilight of his career, was the best known opponent Cruz had faced so far and Cruz made him look like the aging fighter he is. I wrote about the fight as well as former junior featherweight world titlist Angelo Leo’s hard-fought majority decision win over former world title challenger Aaron Alameda, who put on a terrific battle in the opening fight. Please read the undercard story I wrote for The Ring here: https://www.ringtv.com/623221-isaac-cruz-outpoints-francisco-vargas-angelo-leo-edges-aaron-alameda-via-hard-fought-md/

Inoue blitzes Dasmarinas

Naoya “Monster” Inoue, the Japanese pound-for-pound star, retained his unified IBF/WBA bantamweight world title with a third-round destruction of overmatched Filipino mandatory challenger Michael Dasmarinas in the main event of the Top Rank Boxing on ESPN card at the Virgin Hotels Las Vegas.

Top Rank chairman Bob Arum was mightily impressed by one of his company’s elite fighters.

“Naoya Inoue is a unique force of nature inside that ring,” said Arum, whose guest at the fight seated next to him was legendary KISS rock star Gene Simmons. “Another incredible performance from ‘The Monster.’ We are seeing a great fighter at work here, and he is only going to get better.”

Inoue, who retained his title for the fifth time, is perhaps the best body puncher in boxing, something Dasmarinas would probably agree with after getting knocked down three times with body shots, including the KO punch.

Inoue (21-0, 18 KOs), 28, who improved to 16-0 in world title fights, dropped Dasmarinas with a left hook to the body in the second round and twice more with liver shots in the third round. He was in serious trouble from the first two knockdowns and finished after the third, when referee Russell Mora waved it off at 2 minutes, 45 seconds as the southpaw Dasmarinas (30-3-1, 20 KOs), 28, was in obvious pain. The loss was Dasmarinas’ first since 2014.

“I prepare myself to knock them out, whether with a head shot or a body shot,” Inoue said through an interpreter. “I came prepared and to get a win by knockout is good for me. The first round, I just wanted to see what he had. It depended on how he came out, and after a little while, yeah, I thought I could get him out.”

Inoue hopes to next face the winner of the Aug. 14 unification fight between WBC titlist Nonito Donaire, who Inoue outpointed in the action-packed and competitive 2019 fight of the year, and WBO beltholder John Riel Casimero.

“Getting the win makes me smile, but to be able to fight the winner of Casimero and Donaire, that brings me another smile,” said Inoue, who has also won titles at junior bantamweight and junior flyweight.

Mayer: On to unification

In the Inoue-Dasmarinas co-feature, Mikaela Mayer (15-0, 5 KOs), 30, of Los Angeles, retained her WBO junior lightweight title for the first time against Erica Farias (26-5, 10 KOs), 36, of Argentina, by unanimous decision. Mayer won 98-92, 98-92 and 97-93.

She outlanded the game Farias 118-86, according to CompuBox, and is next slated for unification fight with IBF titlist Maiva Hamadouche (22-1, 18 KOs), 31, of France, in the fall, in the United States.

“I was just waiting to get through this fight to get to Maiva. Remind her that I’ll see her soon,” Mayer said.

Also on the card, former junior featherweight titlist Isaac Dogboe (22-2, 15 KOs), 26, of Ghana, won a hard-fought majority decision against Adam Lopez (15-3, 6 KOs), 25, of Glendale, California, in a featherweight battle.

Dogboe, who is two fights removed from back-to-back losses in junior featherweight title bouts to Emanuel Navarrete, won 97-93 and 96-94 while one judge had it 95-95.

Dogboe started fast but Lopez rallied in the second half of the fight to pull closer as he buzzed Dogboe multiple times but couldn’t knock him down.

“I was pretty confident I’d get that decision because I controlled the fight for the first six rounds,” Dogboe said. “I was posing too much and got a little too careless. Every now and then, I stayed in the pocket a little too long and forced too much. But, listen, Adam is a great guy. He showed the pedigree. We promised it would be a firefight. It takes two to tango.

“A lot of people wrote me off after those losses to Navarrete and said I was overhyped. People like me, we don’t stay down forever. We get back up.”

Munguia pummels Szeremeta

Former junior middleweight world titlist Jamie Munguia laid a one-sided beating on late replacement Kamil Szeremeta, stopping him at the end of the sixth round of their middleweight main event on the Golden Boy Promotions card on DAZN on Saturday at University of Texas at El Paso’s Don Haskins Center.

Munguia (37-0, 30 KOs), 24, of Mexico, did as he pleased throughout the fight, landing clean, sharp punches nearly at will throughout the fight to hand Szeremeta (21-2, 5 KOs), 31, of Poland, his second loss in a row. In December, Szeremeta, the mandatory challenger, was dominated, dropped four times and stopped in the seventh round by middleweight world titlist Gennadiy Golovkin.

According to CompuBox, Munguia landed 178 of 439 punches (40 percent) and Szeremeta landed just 72 of 287 (25 percent).

“I was surprised at his ability to take punishment,” Munguia said through an interpreter. “He has all my respect because he could take a lot of punishment. I was really trying to work my offense in this fight and try different things. Then I began to pressure him and change the distance at which I fought. Hopefully, I can fight for a world title at the end of this year. If not, I would like to fight Gabriel Rosado.”

Munguia was supposed to fight Poland’s Maciej Sulecki on April 23 but Sulecki pulled out with a back injury and replaced by D’Mitrius Ballard. Then Ballard suffered an elbow injury and also pulled out, forcing the card to be postponed until June 19. Sulecki came back in as the opponent on the new date and pulled out again for reasons that were not announced and Szeremeta took his place on two weeks’ notice.

Munguia was in his third fight with Hall of Famer Erik Morales as his trainer and is 3-0 as a middleweight since vacating his junior middleweight title to move up in weight.

He is closing in on a title shot as he is the No. 1 contender in two of the sanctioning bodies but gatekeeper Rosado could be up next as Rosado scored a massive knockout in a big upset in the super middleweight co-feature.

Rosado (26-13-1, 15 KOs), 35, of Philadelphia, a former middleweight world title challenger, got dropped with a combination late in the first round and was losing badly to highly touted prospect Bektemir “Bully” Melikuziev (7-1, 6 KOs), 25, a southpaw from Uzbekistan fighting out of Indio, California, when he came up with a home run punch in the third round.

Rosado landed a clean right hand for a knockout of the year contender than landed on the chin and dropped Melikuziev hard face first, prompting Rocky Burke to wave it off at 1 minute, 21 seconds.

Silva defeats Chavez Jr.

Anderson Silva, the 46-year-old MMA legend from Brazil, crossed over to boxing and beat Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. by split decision on the “Tribute to the Kings” pay-per-view card meant to celebrate his famous family at Jalisco Stadium in Guadalajara, Mexico.

Chavez, as usual, missed weight. He was 2.4 pounds over the 182-pound contract weight on Friday and had to pay Silva $100,000 of his purse in yet another embarrassment. Then he got picked apart by the more aggressive Silva, who looked and was congratulated by superstar Canelo Alvarez, who was ringside, after the bout.

Two judges had it 77-75 for Silva and one judge generously had it 77-75 for Chavez, a former middleweight titlist who has done little in the years since he held the belt.

Silva, who is 34-11 with 23 KOs in MMA, had two previous boxing matches, going 1-1 in fights in 1998 and 2005. He was the heavy underdog against Chavez (52-6-1, 34 KOs), 35, of Mexico, who dropped to 2-4 in his last six bouts since 2017.

“I’m so happy to be here. We won every round,” said Silva, the former longtime UFC middleweight champion. “This has been a dream of mine for many years. I did this because I have the best team. My team is my family. We did this together. Lots of hard work to get to this point. Absolutely I will (box) again.”

According to CompuBox, Silva landed 99 of 392 punches (25 percent) and Chavez landed only 53 of 153 punches (35 percent).

Silva, a southpaw, hurt Chavez in the fourth round with a left hand and opened a cut over his right eye in the eighth round.

“I just had some problems breathing plus my ribs were kind of hurt,” Chavez said. “I thought it could have been a draw. I failed to throw more punches. He didn’t do much damage. There were a few rounds that went back and forth.”

On the undercard, middleweight Ramon Alvarez (29-8-3, 16 KOs), 34, the older brother of Canelo Alvarez, won a dominant and bloody decision over Omar Chavez (38-7-1, 25 KOs), 31, in their rubber match. Scores were 80-73, 80-73 and 79-73.

In 2014, Alvarez, who was boxing in his hometown, won a 10-round decision in a junior middleweight fight with Chavez and in the 2017 rematch at 156 pounds, Chavez knocked out Alvarez out in the second round.

In fight No. 3, Alvarez controlled the action throughout the bout, but Chavez was hampered by a badly bleeding cut around his right eye that was opened by an apparent accidental head butt in the fourth round.

“I feel really great and proud on this victory over Omar Chavez,” Alvarez said. “It’s a really special night and I’m proud of my effort.”

Chavez didn’t dispute the result but lamented the cut.

“He won, no question. It was a clear head butt that caused lots of blood to pour out,” he said. “That changed the whole fight.”

Chavez Sr. rumbles with Camacho Jr.

Julio Cesar Chavez Sr., the former three-division champion and Mexico’s greatest fighter, and Hector Camacho Jr., gave the fans a good show in a highly entertaining exhibition bout that was moved from the co-feature slot to the main event position of the pay-per-view at the last minute.

It was a fitting position for Chavez, who retired in 2005 but has participated in various exhibitions over the years. However, he said this would be his last ring appearance.

He and Camacho fought four two-minute rounds with head gear and Chavez, even at 58, clearly got the better of Camacho Jr., 42, the son of the late Hector Camacho Jr., a Chavez Sr. friend and rival, who was gunned down in 2012 at age 50.

Chavez Sr. cruised to a decision win over fellow Hall of Famer Camacho Sr. in a 1992 mega fight that is a big part of the famed Mexico-Puerto Rican boxing rivalry.

After the exhibition was over Canelo Alvarez, the current era’s Mexican superstar, entered the ring and embraced Chavez, who was cheered wildly by the crowd.

Charlo-Montiel and Cruz-Vargas photos: Esther Lin/Showtime; Inoue-Dasmarinas and Mayer-Farias photos: Mikey Williams/Top Rank; Munguia-Szeremeta photo: Sye Williams/Golden Boy Promotions; Silva-Chavez Jr. and Chavez Sr.-Camacho Jr. photos: Chris Farina