Filipina-American Ana “The Hurricane” Julaton retained her WBO female super bantamweight title Saturday night against challenger and hometown fighter Jessica Villafranca in Yucatan, Mexico.
The 31-year-old from Daly City, California dominated the ten-round fight and landed the more telling blows from start to finish.
The three judges scored it 97-92, 96-93 and 98-91, all in favor of Julaton. It was the first successful defense of the title Julaton won last February against Francesca Alcanter.
Last June, Julaton beat Angel Gladney by unanimous decision in a non-title bout.
Julaton improved her record to 10-2-1 (win-loss-draw) with 1 knockout victory. Villafranca dropped to 12-4-0, 6 KOs.
Julaton joins a short list of Filipinos who won world title bouts in Mexico. The others are Luisito Espinosa, Donnie Nietes and Rodel Mayol.
Meanwhile, Filipino Roilo “The Phoenix” Golez failed to beat the odds which were heavily stacked against him and lost by a fifth-round technical knockout to WBC No. 4 ranked light flyweight and former world champion Sammy “Guty” Gutierrez in a battle for the WBC silver championship in Mexico yesterday.
Golez was game for sure but in a bloody battle Gutierrez dominated right from the opening bell and it seemed only a matter of time for the fight to be stopped. The end came at 2:06 seconds of the fifth round.
Gutierrez had earlier won the interim title with a 6th round TKO over Renan Trongco of the Philippines in Buenos Aires, Argentina on Feb. 12 this year.
The 24 year old Golez scored a major upset last July 8 when he won the WBC Asian Boxing Council minimum weight title with a 10th round TKO over heavily favored Thongthailek Sor Tanapinyo of Thailand.
Boxrec.com reported that Trongco dropped Gutierrez in the opening round and that referee Anibal Andrade deducted one point from Gutierrez in round six before he won by a TKO at 2:19 of the same round.
Gutierrez improved his record to 30-6-2 with 21 knockouts while Golez who reportedly had a record of 16-5 with 6 knockouts going into the fight, is now at 16-6 with 6 knockouts.
In a pre-fight press conference Gutierrez said “I am grateful for this great opportunity given to me by the WBC to fight for this important belt. I became world champion in the WBA and I hope to win the WBC title and do it in my own country.” On Sunday morning Manila Time, Gutierrez kept his promise which was made easier by being matched against a game but overmatched Filipino. /Correspondent Rene Bonsubre Jr with reports from philboxing.com