(Photo credit: Tom Casino/Showtime) By Jim Dower: Unbeaten #14 WBA J’Leon Love (18-0, 10 KO’s) overcame a 5th round knockdown to come back and defeat Marco Antonio Periban (20-2-1, 13 KO’s) by a 10 round unanimous decision to capture the WBA International super middleweight title on Saturday night at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas, Nevada. The final judges scores were 95-93, 97-92, and 96-93. Love was very fortunate to survive the 5th round because he took a pounding in that round and was on the verge of being stopped after getting hit with a crushing right hand from Periban.
After being stunned, Love was hit with a nonstop flurry of hard power shots that ended with Love going down. Periban nailed Love with at least two punches to the back of the head after he went down. Love was able to get back to his feet and clinch his way out of the round.
By Eric Thomas: Unbeaten middleweight prospect J’Leon Love (15-0, 8 KO’s) will be in action in a scheduled 10 round bout on the undercard of the Floyd Mayweather Jr. vs. Robert “The Ghost” Guerrero card on May 4th at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas, Nevada, according to Dan Rafael.