McJoe Arroyo defeats Arthur Villanueva in an injury-shortened bout
By Rich Mazon
PhilBoxing.com
Sun, 19 Jul 2015
Previously undefeated Arthur Villanueva (27-0, 14 KOs) of the famed ALA Boxing Stable of Cebu City came up short in his attempt to become a world champion, yielding to unbeaten McJoe Arroyo (16-0, 8 KOs) of Puerto Rico by a Technical Decision in the 10th round of their scheduled twelve round championship fight.
The twenty ?six year old fighter from Bago City, Negros Occidental in the Philippines suffered a nasty cut in the 6th round from a clash of heads between the two fighters . That was not the only misfortune for the Filipino fighter in the 6th as he was deducted a point by referee Rafael Ramos for coming in with his head, after a couple of warnings.
The cut on Villanueva?s right eye became deeper as the fight extended to the 10th round, which forced Referee Ramos to stop the fight at the 2:05 mark upon the advice of the physician at ringside.
The result of the fight then went to the scorecards of the three judges at ringside and Arroyo was declared the winner of the shortened fight and the vacant International Boxing Federation (IBF) super flyweight world title with scores of 97-32, 98-91 and 98-91.
Both fighters were very cautious in their strategy against each other, which produced a very tactical fight between the two. The lack of action in the ring was booed by the crowd at the Don Haskins Convention Center in El Paso, Texas and was not appreciated by boxing scribes who commented on the fight via their social media accounts.
Villanueva was active from the opening round but he missed most of his punches in the early phase of the bout. Arroyo though was the more accurate fighter of the two despite his low volume punching. The Puerto Rican southpaw?s left hand was an effective weapon for him . Arroyo landed clean left hooks and left straights against his Filipino counterpart.
Villanueva tried to rally late after the deduction and the cut but his wound was a prime target for Arroyo?s who unloaded on it with his straight lefts. It produced further bleeding in the 10th and the ring officials decided that the fight had to be stopped.
Villanueva suffered the first loss of his career (27-1) in his debut in U.S. soil and also lost his chance to become the second world champion from his country. Currently, his stable mate Donnie Nietes is the only world title holder (WBO light flyweight) from the Philippines.
You can reach the author at rrmaze24@aol.com.
Click here to view a list of other articles written by Rich Mazon .
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