By Jim Dower: Making his fourth defense of his World Boxing Council (WBC) lightweight title Humberto Soto (56-7-2, 32 KO’s) defeated number #11 ranked WBC contender Motoki Sasaki (36-9-1, 23 KO’s) by an 11th round technical decision on Saturday at the Parque Andrés Quintana Roo, Cozumel, Quintana Roo, Mexico. The fight ended in the 11th after Soto, 31, slipped on the wet canvas and injured his left leg. Moments earlier, Soto had slipped on the same spot on the canvas, which was very wet. It’s unclear why the referee didn’t take a towel and attempt to dry off the wet spot because it was a clear hazard. The final judges’ scores were 99-89, 99-89 and 100-88.

Soto completely dominated the 35-year-old Sasaki for the entire fight, hitting him at will and rarely getting hit in return. But Sasaki make it hard for Soto by constantly pressuring him and making Soto work a lot harder than he wanted to. Soto looked great for the first four rounds, and was able to lay out some serious punishment against the shorter Sasaki.

However, Soto began to tire out after the 4th and lessened up with the amount of shots that he was throwing. Sasaki had a bad habit of fighting with his hands down by his sides during much of the fight. This made it incredibly easy for Soto to land his shots. Sasaki didn’t seem to mind getting hit, as he just took the shots and continued to come forward trying to land. Unfortunately, Sasaki’s reach was too short for him to land all that often.

The only thing that seemed to be able to connect with any real consistency from Sasaki was the crown of his head, as he clashed heads with Soto constantly in pretty much every round of the fight. The referee seemed to tire of this and in the 10th round, he finally penalized Sasaki 1 point for leading with his head. In the 11th, Sasaki literally charged Soto at a run and when Soto attempted to get out of the way, he slipped on the wet canvas and injured his leg. The fight was then halted and went to the cards where Soto was awarded the decision.