Aussies go 4-1 in Battle of Brisbane

IBF super flyweight champion Jerwin Ancajas 26-1-1 (17) of the Philippines made a successful second defence of his world title with a 7th round TKO of Japan’s Teiru Kinoshita 25-1-1 (8) in the main support bout to Manny Pacquiao vs Jeff Horn at Suncorp Stadium in Brisbane, Australia on Sunday, local time.

In a battle of southpaws, Ancajas controlled the action from the opening bell, showing a stiff and accurate right jab. In the second round a chopping left cross from Ancajas opened up a cut in the corner of Kinoshita’s right eye.

Ancajas targeted the cut for the rest of the fight, hammering it with jabs and crosses until swelling started to set in. Kinoshita just didn’t have the firepower to keep Ancajas off him and had no answer to the champion’s combination punching, which inevitably culminated in punches to the cut and swollen eye. By the sixth round the eye was virtually shut.

Ancajas finished the fight in the 7th round with a right rip to the body of Kinoshita in centre ring. Kinoshita went down heavily but beat the count, only for referee Ignatius Missailidis to take a look at his battle-worn face and wave off the fight at 1:53.

Kinoshita qualified for the fight by knocking out two debutants and a boxer with a 0-9 record in his last three fights. Prior to that, Kinoshita was held to a split decision by Cyborg Nawatedani 9-2-2 (4). His two opponents immediately before that had records of 1-10 and 0-2 respectively. To put it another way, his last six opponents had a combined record of 10-23-2. This was enough to make Kinoshita the highest ranked contender in the IBF rankings at #3 behind two vacant positions.

MICHAEL CONLAN TKO3 JARRETT OWEN

Irish Olympian Michael Conlan 3-0 (3) scored his third straight stoppage win with a TKO3 of Aussie Jarrett Owen 5-5-3 (2) in a featherweight clash over six rounds.

The 25-year-old two-time Olympian from Belfast spent much of the bout boxing from the southpaw stance, although most of his success came from boxing orthodox.

In the third round two rights to the body followed by a nasty left to the liver left Owen covering his ribs while Conlan teed off on his unprotected head. Owen’s corner skied the towel.

“It’s an amazing atmosphere, an amazing amount of Irish here,” said Conlan in the ring after the fight. “I have to support my country and do my country proud, represent and that’s what I done today.”

Next up for Conlan is a bout in just under three months’ time.

“I think we’re looking at the 22nd of September as the next date and I’m really looking forward to that, going in and getting a better performance than this one.

“Every little fight is a little performance, little by little all the way to the top.”

DAVID TOUSSAINT SD8 SHANE MOSLEY JR

In the opening bout of the telecast Canberra middleweight David Toussaint 11-0 (8) overcame a stiff challenge from American Shane Mosley Jr 10-2 (7) defeating him by split decision over eight.

“Against such a good fighter in Shane Mosley Jr, his old man is an American legend,” said Toussaint. “I just want to say thanks to the crowd, it’s unreal, I can’t believe it.”

The undefeated 26-year-old southpaw suffered a cut over his left eye but it didn’t have any effect on the fight with Toussaint winning by scores of 77-76 twice and trailing on the third card 75-77.

Toussaint’s superior firepower was evident early on as he landed laser-like lead left crosses and raked Mosley’s body with hooks and rips. Any time Mosley landed something of significance, Toussaint retaliated with his own heavy artillery.

Late in the fight Mosley mounted a comeback, but it was too little, too late.

Mosley felt he was hard done by and disputed two of the judges’ scorecards.

“I walked him down,” said Mosley. “I walked down a power puncher. I was landing the straight right all day. I could tell he was getting tired. He chose to box instead of fight the last two rounds. I won that fight.”