(Photo credit: Hogan Photos) By Allan Fox: Marcos Maidana (35-3, 31 KO’s) pulled off a huge upset tonight in defeating WBA welterweight champion Adrien Broner (27-1, 22 KO’s) by a 12 round unanimous decision on Saturday night at the Alamodome in San Antonio, Texas. The final judges scores were 115-110, 116-109, 117-109.
Maidana knocked Broner down in the 2nd and 8th rounds with tremendous left hooks to the head. Broner was badly hurt in the 2nd round, as he got up on weak legs and took punishment for the entire round. It’s surprising that Broner was able to make it out of the round.
Maidana was too strong for Broner and was able to hurt Broner at least 5 or 6 times in the fight with big left hooks. Broner took the shots but they had him on shaky legs.
In a controversial move by referee Lawrence Cole, he took a point off from Maidana for a head-butt in the 8th round after the knockdown. Cole took a point off for that but then Broner get away with shoving Maidana all night long and hitting him after the bell in the 11th round. Cole gave Broner numerous warnings for the shoving but never took points off.
After the fight Broner quickly left the ring. There’s talk of a possible broken jaw, as there was swelling on Broner’s left side of his jaw.
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Interim WBA welterweight champion Keith Thurman (22-0, 20 KO’s) stopped an over-matched challenger Jesus Soto Karass (28-9-3m 18 KO’s) in the 9th round. Thurman dropped Soto Karass with a hard right hand that had him out on his feet.
Referee Jon Schorle then stepped in and halted the fight at 2:21 of the round. Thurman also knocked Soto Karass down with a right hand to the head in the 5th round.
Soto Karass staggered Thurman with a big right hand in the 1st round. However, instead of going after Thurman to try and finish him off, which is arguably what Soto Karass should have done, he took his time and let Thurman get out of the round.
Thurman spent much of the fight moving constantly and there were questions whether he’d be able to move for the entire 12 rounds. To his credit, he didn’t fade from all the movement, but against a better fighter that is quicker and is good at cutting off the ring, Thurman might have problems in the future.
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WBC super bantamweight champion Leo Santa Cruz (26-0-1, 15 KO’s) successfully defended his title in beating #5 WBC Cesar Seda (25-2, 17 KO’s) by a 12 round unanimous decision. The final judges scores were 117-110, 116-111, 115-112.
Santa Cruz knocked Seda down with a right hand in the 5th round.
Most of the rounds were pretty close due to Seda’s speed advantage and his defensive style of fighting. However, Santa Cruz was the aggressor and was constantly the one coming forward looking to engage. On several occasions, Santa Cruz was able to nail Seda with some hard right hands when catching him on the ropes. Seda was able to land a lot of shots himself, but he didn’t have the power that Santa Cruz had in his punches.
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WBA Super World light heavyweight champion Beibut Shumenov (14-1, 9 KO’s) stopped #14 WBA Tamas Kovacs (23-1, 14 KO’s) in the 3rd round. Shumenov knocked Kovacs down three times in the fight.
The bout was stopped after Shumenov knocked Kovacs with a right hand to the head. The referee Rafael Ramos then halted the fight at 2:55 of the round.
Shumenov knocked Kovacs down with a left hook to the head in the last seconds of the 1st round. In the 2nd round, Shumenov tagged Kovacs with a left hook that caused him to go down on a delayed reaction after clinching initially.
After the fight, IBF light heavyweight champion Bernard Hopkins came into the ring and made it clear that he wants to fight Shumenov next. Shumenov said “It would be an honor to fight Bernard Hopkins.” Hopkins said “It would be an honor to take your title.”
This is a good fight for Hopkins because he clearly wouldn’t stand a chance against WBC 175 lb. champion Adonis Stevenson or WBO champion Sergey Kovalev. Hopkins is too old for those guys, and they’d both give him a pounding. But Shumenov, who some fans see as a paper champion, is someone that Hopkins would have a chance to beat. Shumenov has faced nothing but weak opposition since beating Gabriel Campillo by a controversial 12 round split decision in January of 2010. Since that fight, Shumenov has beaten Vyacheslav Uzelkov, William Joppy, Danny Santiago, Enrique Ornelas and Tamas Kovacs. Before tonight, Shumenov hadn’t fought since June of 2012. It’s unknown why the World Boxing Association didn’t strip Shumenov of his title. It’s also unclear why Shumenov has faced such weak opposition in his three years as the champion.
Sadly, Shumenov vs. Hopkins is probably about the best fight we can get from either of these guys. I don’t see either of them fighting Stevenson or Kovalev, so this fight is kind of fitting.
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Tonight’s undercard results
Ricardo “Dinamita” Alvarez MD 10 Rod Salka
Jermain Taylor TKO 7 J.C. Candelo
Rau’shee Warren UD 8 Jose Silveira
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