Bradley bests Marquez to retain WBO title
WBO welterweight champion Timothy Bradley (31-0) retained his title and unbeaten record with a split decision victory over Juan Manuel Marquez (55-7-1) on Saturday night at the Thomas & Mack Center in Las Vegas, Nevada.
The judges scores were 115-113 for Marquez, 116-112 and 115-113 for Bradley.
It was a third narrow decision victory in a row for Bradley following wins over Manny Pacquiao and Ruslan Provodnikov and one which derailed Marquez in his bid to claim a fifth world title.
After a cautious opening round, Bradley controlled the 2nd, gliding in and out with Marquez landing very little until both men engaged into a toe to toe battle for the final ten seconds of the round. In the 3rd Marquez was the more accurate to edge the round. Bradley responded with some good shots to the body in the 4th and he controlled the 5th landing often and making Marquez miss plenty. Marquez came back well in the 6th with the better landed punches to take the session.
Bradley was the busier through the 7th and 8th though neither fighter landed a significant punch. Marquez landed a few shots late in the 9th that would of likely been enough to steal away the round. Bradley came back in the 10th to land a big right but then Marquez countered in the best exchanges of the fight. Bradley was back on the defensive in the 11th as the Mexican pressed forward though was unable to land enough to do much damage.
Marquez did land a good right hand early in the 12th and he appeared to be on his way to winning the round until the American rallied with a left hook that staggered Marquez but he remained on his feet to hear the final bell.
"That win was my ticket to the boxing hall of fame," Bradley said. "I beat a great champion. He couldn't touch me. I gave him a boxing lesson."
Marquez found himself on the wrong end of another narrow decision and felt he had done enough to win.
"I came to win. I felt that I did win." Marquez said. "The judges took it away. you don't have to knock out a guy to win. I've been robbed six times in my career. I clearly won the fight."
Orlando Salido (40-12-2) stopped Orlando Cruz (20-3-1) in the 7th round to regain the WBO featherweight title.
Salido was in charge from the start and at 1:05 of the 7th he unloaded a overhand right followed by a left uppercut that sent Cruz to the canvas and there was no sign of him getting up from the knockdown and the fight was quickly stopped.
Salido wins the WBO belt for the second time after losing it to Mikey Garcia in January.
The belt had been vacated when Mikey Garcia failed to make the featherweight limit of 126 lbs before his first defence against Juan Manuel Lopez in June.
Cruz fails in his bid to become professional boxing's first openly gay world champion.
Other results on the card:
Vasyl Lomachenko KO 4 Jose Ramirez
Sean Monaghan TKO 3 Anthony Smith
Mikael Zewski RTD 5 Alberto Herrera
Brad Soloman UD 8 Kenny Abril
Jun Doliguez TKO 6 Giovanni Cano
Trevor McCumby UD 6 Eric Watkins