Yoenis Tellez, Alexandro Santiago, and Isaac Cruz shine on Spence - Crawford undercard

It was Errol Spence Jr and Terence Crawford on Saturday night’s Showtime pay-per-view main event, at Las Vegas’ (sold out, 19,990) T-Mobile Arena. Spence (28-1, 22 KO) and Crawford (40-0, 31 KO) were meeting with the undisputed welterweight championship on the line. The main event saw Spence defending his WBC, WBA, and IBF belts, and Crawford putting his WBO title on the line.

As one of the most anticipated fights in years, this was 2 elite fighters meeting close to their prime. It was the talk of the sport, and certainly, the winner could be considered the best fighter in boxing right now. 

Although the main event (see the report by John Raspanti) was the main draw, there were some thrilling matches on the undercard that drew fan interest..

Kicking things off was a nice stoppage win in round 3 for Ronnie Shields-trained Yoenis Tellez (6-0, 5 KO) over tough veteran Sergio Garcia (34-3, 14 KO). This was a significant win for a fighter with only 5 fights heading into the bout. Facing a 36-fight veteran in your 6th bout is no small task. Tellez showed good movement, strong fundamentals and excellent power in the fight. Once he dropped Garcia, and knew he had him hurt, he moved in and showed he knew how to close the show by pouring on punches to the head and body forcing referee referee Robert Hoyle to step in.

After the fight, Tellez, despite only 6 fights, was looking towards big things. 

“First of all, my trainer Ronnie Shields and my whole team behind me – we worked on this during training camp, especially the right hand and it came out just the way it was supposed to come out”, he said. “As soon as I saw him [hurt] I knew it was time that he was done so I went for it. Right now my goal is not defined yet. But I want to face the best 154-pounders that are out there” 

Tellez looks like a fighter to keep an eye on.  

WBC World Bantamweight Championship 

Nonito Donaire (42-8, 28 KO) vs Alexandro Santiago (28-3-5, 14 KO)

Hall of Fame-bound, former world champion, Donaire, at 40, was fighting both father time and a rugged Santiago. 

Both fighters looked to impose their will on the other. With both fighters showing the wear of the fight on their faces, by round 9 they were looking to set up a fight-ending punch off of their respective jabs. Santiago seemed to have a home for his strong right while Donaire was trying to land his power left. 

Despite landing heavy artillery, neither could break the other’s will and this went the full 12. While Donaire looked great for 40, he couldn’t match the power punch output, especially later in the fight. In the end, Santiago came out on top with scores of 115-113 and 116-112 x 2. 

After the fight, with tears of joy on his face, champion Santiago said, “It is so hard to explain this moment right now. All the work we put in for just this moment. It’s great just to win this title.”. 

As for Donaire, who put in a great effort, one wonders if he will go on. 

“I love the sport so much. I told my wife, who has the word. We just have to go back to the locker room, talk about it, and see where we go from there.There were just some times there where I didn’t pull the trigger. That was my biggest problem”, he said. 

WBA world lightweight title eliminator 

Isaac Cruz (25-2-1, 17 KO) vs Gio Cabrera (21-1,7 KO)

In the end, the judges liked the heavy shots of the shorter, stockier Cruz over the lighter flurries of Cabrera. 

“I was superior tonight, but I do respect all of my opponents, and he was very good today”, said Cruz.,

Cabrera, who didn’t seem in any way overwhelmed by the big stage, seemingly frustrated by the scoring, left the ring before being interviewed. Despite the loss, he showed boxing fans he can go the distance with a very good fighter. 

Later interviewed, he said, “I really thought I did enough in the early rounds and the closing rounds. It was a close fight”, he said. “In the middle rounds I was pulling back and he was catching me with punches that were turning my head around. He’s a ’Pitbull’ and we gave the fans a good fight”, he said. 

Off TV

Super Middleweight Steve Nelson W UD 10 Rowdy Montgomery 

Super Bantamweight Jose Salas TKO 4 Reyes Aston Palicte 

Lightweight Jabin Chollet TKO 2 Michael Portales

Lightweight Demler Zamora W UD 8 Nikolai Buzolin 

Welterweight Deshawn Prather W UD 6 Kevin Ventura 

Super Featherweight Justin Vitoria TKO 4 Pedro Borgaro