By Sam Gregory: On tonight’s final bout for the undercard of the Mayweather-Marquez fight in a highly anticipated rematch, the reigning and defending undefeated featherweight champion Chris John 43-0-2 with 22 KO’s defended his WBA belt against Rocky Juarez 28-5-1 with 20 KO’s in a 12 round bout in the featherweight division.

At the opening bell Juarez came out the aggressor going after the champ throwing his jab but John had an answer for the attack moving side to side using angles to avoid Juarez’ attack.

By the 2nd round John began landing his stiff jab with accuracy moving Juarez around the ring and taking control of the fight.

By the third round Compubox had John connecting with twice as many punches as his opponent and the unofficial scorecard had it scored 2 rounds to 1 for the champion.

In the middle rounds John pursued Juarez with a body attack landing solid right hands that kept his opponent on the defense. In Juarez’ attempt at a body attack John was able to use angles and cut off the ring to avoid the onslaught of punches from Juarez.

By the 9th round John was clearly controlling the offensive flow of the fight and on the unofficial scorecard had a comfortable lead of 8 rounds to 1.

It was in the 12th and final round that Juarez gained his composure and landed a left hook that wobbled John who managed to hang on until the final bell.

The fight went to the judge’s scorecards: 119-109, 117-111 and 114-113 all for the winner by unanimous decision and still WBA featherweight champion Chris John.