BRUNO ESCALANTE LOSES CLOSE DECISION IN NABF TITLE FIGHT
By Ronnie Nathanielsz
PhilBoxing.com
Mon, 14 Dec 2015
International Boxing Association super flyweight champion Bruno Escalante from Cebu who has been fighting out of Redwood City, California lost a close if not questionable unanimous decision in a North American Boxing Federation title fight in ?The Return of the Champ? fight card at the Richard Borchard Regional Fairgrounds Exhibit Hall in Robstown, Texas over the weekend.
George Vondracek of the Corpus Christi ?Caller Times? reported that Kingsville?s undefeated Oscar Cantu was ?battered, cut and bloody? but outlasted Escalante over ten rounds on Sunday, Manila Time, bringing the NABF belt back to American soil for the first time since 2008.
Vondracek noted that the chiseled, 5?2? Escalante who was five inches shorter than Cantu ?appeared to wrest the upper hand in rounds three through eight, landing solid shots despite suffering the first cut of his career via a head-butt in the third round. The 5th and 7th rounds were particularly rough for Cantu, with Escalante peppering the gash above the right eye above and to the right of his right eye.?
In a post-fight interview Cantu who improved to 13-0 said ?I don?t back down from these fights. These fights make champions.?
He added ?I could pretty make fight through one eye pretty much. When I got that cut I couldn?t see through my right eye. That?s what champions do. I proved today, I am a champion.?
Cantu used his height and reach advantage and kept Escalante away with his jabs especially in the first two and the last two rounds and won a close verdict on the scorecards of all three judges.
Ruben Carrion and Don Griffin both scored the fight for Cantu 97-93 while the third judge Luis Escalona turned in a 96-94 card in favor of Cantu who said ?you know he (Escalante) is a veteran of the sport also. He knows how to get on the inside. He?s fast and that helps him out. A short little guy he can get down low. Hats off to him He came up with a good game plan.?
Escalante whose IBA title was not at stake, knew the odds were stacked against him if the fight went to the scorecards. He said, ?we knew we were going to fight in his hometown so we prepared ourselves. We aimed for a knockout to win the fight. It's his hometown. We cannot leave it to a decision. The score was exactly the same as we expected. If it went to the scorecards, they were going to give it to him.?
Photo: Bruno Escalante (R) in action against Nestor Ramos at the StubHub Center in Carson, CA on Oct. 17, 2015.
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