Melindo suffers first career loss

Macau—Milan Melindo put up a courageous effort but still yielded to a sturdy and determined WBA/WBO flyweight champion Juan Francisco Estrada in the 12-round bout of the Fists of Gold II card at the Cotai Arena, here last Saturday night.

It started as a match of jabs, feints and counters as both boxers exchanged hard punches. In the end, the Mexican, who improved to 15-2 (win-loss) with 18 knockouts, emerged victorious with scores of 118-109, 117-109 and 118-109.

But the scores did not reflect the intense struggle inside the ring. In fact, most of the spectators thought it was a closer fight.

Estrada was using lateral movement and tried to exploit his longer reach while Melindo tried to get in and land hard combinations.

True to form, Estrada would take two to three punches and fire back. Melindo’s punches were accurate as he made Estrada’s hooks miss a lot.

But a cut opened on Melindo’s left eyebrow in the seventh became an inviting target for the Mexican champion’s jabs.

Estrada gathered momentum in the endgame and a series of punches in the 11th round put Melindo down. He got up and survived the round.

Sensing the fight was hanging in the balance, Melindo gave it his all in the final round but Estrada held on.

Melindo, thus fell to 29-1 with 12 KOs.

In the main event, China’s two-time Olympic gold medal winner Zou Shiming won his second professional fight with a unanimous decision over teenager Jesus Ortega.

Zou tried to go for a knockout but Ortega lived up to his Mexican pedigree and held on until the end.

The scores stood at 59-55 for all three judges.

The 32-year-old Zou looked sharper and faster as he landed great punches against the gritty 19-year-old Ortega.

Meanwhile, IBF featherweight champion Evgeny ‘The Mexican Russian’ Gradovich retained his title also by a unanimous decision over Mauricio Muñoz of Argentina.

The scorecards read 119-109, 120-108 and 119-109.

In a rare heavyweight battle held in Asia, Andy Ruiz, Jr. won by technical knockout in the fourth round over Joe Hanks.

Concussive right and left hooks to the head sent Hanks down twice.

Referee Rafael Ramos stopped the fight at the 1:41 mark and Ruiz was awarded the WBO Intercontinental heavyweight title.

In an entertaining brawl, Rex Tso of Hong Kong beat Thai Rusalee Samor by majority decision after six rounds.

Genesis Servania overcame a tough Konosuke Tomiyama via ninth-round split technical decision.

A wild opening round saw Servania drop the Japanese with a left hook but Tomiyama got up and dropped the overeager Servania with a quick left.

Tomiyama swarmed on Servania when he got up and knocked him down again but the Bacolod fighter survived the onslaught.

Servania used his boxing skills in the second and knocked down Tomiyama with hard rights in the third round.

But the Japanese showed his heart and resiliency and kept poking Servania with his sharp jabs.

A cut on Servania’s left eyebrow due to a clash of heads led to the fight stoppage and the fight went to the three judges’ cards.

Judge Sawaeng Thaweekoon had it 85-84 for Tomiyama, judge Salven Lagumbay, 86-83, for Servania and Takeshi Shimakawa, 87-82, for Servania.

Servania remains undefeated at 22-0 with 8 KOs. Tomiyama dropped to 23-6-2, with 8 KOs.