Prior to the anticipated “Toe-to-Toe” main event of Showtime pay-per-view between fellow Mexican stars, here are the under-card early Saul “Canelo” Alvarez vs. Alfredo Angulo results at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas, Nevada.
Leo Santa Cruz UD 12 Cristian Mijares, retains title
Leo Santa Cruz retains his WBC super bantamweight title, out-classing and out-witting the savvy veteran opponent to the tune of 120-108, 120-108, and 119-109 from the judges’ scorecards.
I scored it 119-109 for Santa Cruz. Santa Cruz (27-0-1, 15 KO’s) of Huetamo, Michoacán de Ocampo, Mexico now resides at Rosemead, California, USA is the heavy favorite coming into this fight.
I predicted Santa Cruz to win via knockout.
But tonight it’s not the case as Cristian Mijares (49-8-2, 24 KO’s) native of Gomez Palacio, Durango, Mexico was able to handle Santa Cruz power advantage and used angles not to collide Santa Cruz head on. Mijares showed toughness tonight absorbing real hard shots from Santa Cruz.
Jorge Linares UD 10 Nihito Arakawa win title eliminator
Jorge Linares of Venezuela won the WBC title eliminator against as always entertaining to watch Nihito Arakawa (24-4-1, 16 KO’s) of Hachioji, Tokyo, Japan.
Linares now improved his record to 36-3-0, 23 KO’s will be the challenger for Omar Figueroa’s world title. The rounds were competitive but at the end every round you can easily scored it in favor of Linares.
Arakawa seemed landed the same amount of shots as Linares. But Linares landed more telling blows. It boiled down to the quality of punches landed. Arakawa is a pressure fighter — no question about it, and fans like that kind of style. He’s tough and has the heart of a champion.
But the problem is the power that goes with his pressure. There’s no sting on his punches. He should work out his power. The scores were 98-92, 100-90 twice. I have it 98-92 for Linares.
