Jorge Linares (36-3, 23 KOs) and Nihito Arakawa (24-4-1, 16 KOs) put on a show in the second bout of the PPV, exchanging almost 1,200 punches in 10 brutal rounds as Linares won a hard-fought unanimous decision victory scored 98-92 and 100-90 twice.
Both fighters overcame cuts, but Linares’ combinations were the difference. He repeatedly landed punishing shots with ease against his Japanese opponent to record his fifth straight victory.
“I knew that Arakawa could take a punch going into the fight,” Linares said. “I hurt my right hand in the fourth round and that’s why I relied so heavily on my left. I want to fight for the title as soon as [WBC Lightweight World Champion] Omar Figueroa Jr. is ready.”
Arakawa, who has quickly made a name for himself to boxing fans in the U.S. with his aggressive and relentless approach to fighting, knew he didn’t do enough to earn the victory in just his second fight stateside.
“I’m okay, but I’m disappointed I didn’t win,” Arakawa said. “I knew I wasn’t winning, but I tried to fight as best I could. I couldn’t make it happen. Linares is very good and very strong.”
In a spectacular opening bout of the pay-per-view telecast, late replacement Sergio “Yeyo” Thompson recorded an impressive unanimous decision victory over Ricardo “Dinamita” Alvarez (97-91, 95-93 twice) after taking the bout on less than one week’s notice.
The all-action match featured little defense as the Mexican brawlers exchanged power shots for 10 rounds.
“In the first round I knew I hurt him and I knew I had sufficient power at 135 pounds,” Thompson said. “I’m very excited about this because I was training for another fight and I took this fight on one week’s notice and I was able to counter him effectively.”
Thompson (29-3, 26 KOs) knocked down Alvarez (23-3-3, 13 KOs) for the first time in his career in the third round and scored another knockdown in the eighth round with a thundering overhand right.
“I’m going to talk to my team to see if I should stay at 135 pounds,” Alvarez said. “I threw punches like I normally do, but the power wasn’t there.”
As in September, I once again ran out of gas in the 10th & 11th championship rounds of October & November with this column, but I recovered to complete them and will unleash a few more flurries to close out the 12th and final round.
In the first week of October, Hassan N’Dam won a UD over Curtis Stevens in an eliminator for the right to challenge Jermaine Taylor who defeated aging Sam Soliman to regain the IBF Middleweight title. How Taylor even earned this title shot is another story altogether, but it is all irrelevant as he is now the champion. However he will not have too much time to savor his victory as he has assault and battery charges pending against him and an upcoming court fight that may turn out to be the toughest fight of his life, just when things started to look up for him in boxing, we wish him luck.
