By Jim Dower: Former four division world champion Nonito Donaire (35-3, 23 KOs) made easy work of his stay busy opponent Anthony Settoul (20-4, 8 KOs) in stopping him in the 2nd round on Saturday night at the Cotai Arena, Venetian Resort, Macao. It was a non-competitive fight from start to finish.

Donaire put Settoul on the canvas twice in the 1st round with big power shots. In the 2nd, Donaire knocked Settoul down. Settoul’s trainer opted to have the fight stopped at that point.

Donaire dropped Settoul with a left uppercut in the 1st round. Moments later, Donaire knocked Settoul down for a second time with a beautiful left to the body.

In the 2nd round, Donaire dropped Settoul with a hard chopping right to the head. After that, Settoul’s corner threw in the towel rather than letting their man continue to take one-way punishment. Had the fight continued, Donaire would have likely stopped it outright.
After the fight Donaire said this about a potential fight against WBA super bantamweight champion Scott Quigg: “Be careful what you wish for.”

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In a one-sided fight, #1 IBF Cesar Cuenca (48-0, 2 KOs) kept his unbeaten record alive in easily defeating #2 IBF IK Yang (18-1, 13 KOs) by a lopsided 12 round unanimous decision to capture Lamont Peterson’s IBF light welterweight title. The final judges’ scores were 117-110, 115-110, and 116-109. Cuenca knocked Yang down in the 1st round. In the 5th, the hard hitting but very slow Yang knocked Cuenca down with a right hand.

From the 6th round on, the southpaw Cuenca used his jab, movement and left hands to easily control the plodding Yang. Cuenca frequently beat Yang to the punch in hitting him with fast shots that the Chinese fighter was too slow in avoiding.

With this victory, you can predict that Top Rank will likely match Cuenca up with their fighter WBO light welterweight champion Terence Crawford in the near future if he’s on board with the idea.

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Unbeaten 2012 U.S. Olympian light welterweight Jose Ramirez (14-0, 12 KOs) defeated Ryusei Yoshida (26-8, 13 KOs) by a 3rd round stoppage after Yoshida quit after the 3rd round.

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#1 IBF lightweight contender Denis Shafikov (36-1-1, 20 KOs) defeated Roy Mukhlis (27-5-3, 21 KOs) by a 3rd round stoppage. Shaifivov knocked Mukhlis down in the 2nd round. In the 3rd, Shafikov continued to punish Mukhlis. The fight was then halted at 1:14 of the round.

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Undefeated super bantamweight contender Rex Tso (17-0, 10 KOs) defeated Khunkhiri Wor Wisaruth (21-12-1, 14 KOs) by a 4th round stoppage. The referee stepped in to fight in the 4th round after Tso had Wor Wisaruth hurt and unable to defend himself. The official time of the stoppage was 2:55.

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Other boxing results on the card:

Kuok Kun Ng KO 4 Phompetch Twins Gym
Qu Peng UD 6 Michael Van Nimwegen
Zulpikar Maimaitiali draw 2 Joo Young Kwon