Bradley-Chaves draw, Lee halts Korobov
Former two-division world champion Timothy “Desert Storm” Bradley (30-1-1, 12 KOs) and welterweight contender Diego “La Joya” Chaves (23-2-1, 19 KOs) battled to a hugely controversial 12 round draw on Saturday night at the Cosmopolitan of Las Vegas.
Bradley appeared to win the exciting fight, but the judges saw it differently, scoring it 116-112 for Chaves, 115-113 for Bradley and 114-114.
The American landed rights to the head and body throughout the bout, while also eluding many of Chaves' blows.
Chaves had his moments and was throwing a lot of power shots but hit mostly air.
Two unintentional headbutts occured in round two. This was due to both fighters coming forward and ending up bumping heads.
In the fourth round, they spent long periods in close exchanging punches and by the fifth round, Bradley's left cheek was swelling badly, but it did not seem to bother him.
Bradley continued to throw a lot of punches and connected consistently with his right hand, which led to Chaves' left eye swelling in the second half of the fight.
Bradley looked to be way ahead in the 12th round, but he did not play it safe. He continued to go after Chaves, but his aggressiveness did not secure the win on the scorecards.
"I thought I won at least eight rounds," said Bradley. "I was landing clean punches and felt like I won the fight."
"I felt I was the one who did most of the work in this fight," Chaves said through a translator. "I thought it was a close fight, but I thought I won the fight."
Also on the card, Irish middleweight Andy Lee (34-2, 23 KOs) scored a sixth round stoppage win over previously unbeaten Olympian Matt Korobov (24-1, 13 KOs) to claim the vacant WBO middleweight belt.
In a battle of two southpaws, Korobov edged the early rounds with his superior work-rate. Then Lee uncorked a huge right hook in the sixth that rocked the Russian and following a barrage of punches, referee Kenny Bayless halted the fight.
In another controversial outcome, undefeated Jose Benavidez Jr. (22-0, 15 KOs) defeated interim WBA light welterweight champion Mauricio Herrera (21-5, 7 KOs) by a 12 round unanimous decision.
Herrera dominated the fight and appeared to win at least 8 rounds easily. However, the judges had Benavidez winning the fight 116-112, 116-112 and 117-111.
Herrera outboxed Benavidez early, but Benavidez had good rounds in the sixth and seventh, when he landed some hard body shots and began to be more aggressive. In the the 9th and 10th rounds Herrera backed Benavidez up against the ropes and landed a lot of shots while Benavidez covered up. Benavidez seemed to be going for the knockout blow in the action-packed 12th round but did not land it. Still, the judges gave him the fight.
Other results on the card:
Mikael Zewski W Jeremy Bryan MD 10
Sean Monaghan W Daniel Regi TKO 3
Denis Shafikov W Miguel Angel Mendoza UD 8
Egidijus Kavaliauskas W Jaime Herrera KO 2
Jose Carlos Ramirez W Antonio Arellano TKO 6