By Aragon Garcia: A future star in the making Julio Cesar Martinez (15-1, 12 KOs) wore down and stopped former WBC 112-lb champion Cristofer Rosales (29-5, 20 KOs) in the 9th round to capture the vacant WBC World flyweight title on Friday night on DAZN at the Talking Stick Resort Arena, in Phoenix.
The 24-year-old Martinez landed a flurry of shots against the hurt Rosales in the 9th round that resulted in the referee Raul Caiz Jr. stepping in and stopping the fight. Rosales looked badly hurt and ready to go down.
Showing a different style of fighting, Martinez looked explosive each time he would attack Rosales. When Martinez would come inside, he would land 3 to 4 left hooks in a row, What was interesting about the fight was how Martinez would change stances from orthodox to southpaw, and he would do when he was in close. The way that Martinez changed angles made it tough on Rosales.
Martinez landed 231 of 490 shots for a 47 percent connect percentage, according to CompuBox. For his part, Rosales landed 118 of 591 punches for a 20 percent connect rate.
The taller 5’6 1/2″ Rosales landed a lot of heavy blows, and his punches may have had more power on them. However, Martinez’s rapid fire combination punches, and his hand speed was too much for Rosales.
Martinez going after more titles at 112
“We’re going to go after all the titles and all the belts against whoever,” said Martinez after the fight.
Martinez was disqualified in his last fight in the 3rd round against WBC 112-lb champion Charles Edwards on August 31 in London, England. He knocked down Edwards in the 3rd round, but then hit him with a body shot while he was down. Initially, Martinez was given credit for a 3rd round knockout win. However, moments later the results were overturned, and it was ruled a disqualification due to Martinez hitting him while he was down.
Martinez looks like he has star potential written all over him. His style of fighting is incredibly exciting to watch, and it’s like watching one of the boxing greats from the past.
Maurice Hooker destroys Uriel Perez
Former WBO light welterweight champion Maurice Hooker (27-1-3, defeated journeyman Uriel Oerez 919-5, 17 KOs) by a 1st round knockout in a catchweight right at 144 lbs. Hooker landed a series of crushing hands to the head of Perez while he was against the ropes. As Perez was falling, Hooker landed another right hand to the head. While Perez was down, he held his midsection and chose not to continue fighting. The official time of the stoppage was at 2:52 of round 1.
Hooker had lost his last fight against Jose Ramirez in a unification fight. Rather than returning to 140, Hooker moved up to welterweight for this fight.
Liam Smith defeats Roberto Garcia
Former WBO junior middleweight champion Liam Smith (29-2-1, 16 KOs) defeated Roberto Garcia (42-5, 25 KOs) by a 10 round unanimous decision. Smith landed a lot of shots against the slower, older 39-year-old Garcia, but he wasn’t able to hurt him to the head. Smith did appear to hurt Garcia with body shots several times in the fight, but he failed to follow up each time he had him hurt. Either Smith didn’t want to finish Garcia off or he didn’t realize that he was hurt. The judges’ scores were 99-91, 99-91, 98-92. Boxing News 24 scored it 99-91 for Smith.
All results:
Maurice Hooker KO 1 Uriel Perez
Liam Smith W UD 10 Roberto Garcia
Daniyar Yeleussinov W TKO 5
Josh Kelly WUD 10 Wiston Campos
Reshat Mati W KO 2 Rakim Johnson
Raymond Ford W KO 1 Francisco Muro