SPORTS SHORTS 62: GENESIS SERVANIA'S TORMENTOR OSCAR VALDEZ AND MANNY PACQUIAO'S FORMER FOE ADRIEN BRONER SCORE VICTORIES
By Maloney L. Samaco
PhilBoxing.com
Mon, 22 Feb 2021
Oscar Valdez, age 30 years from Nogales, Sonora, Mexico stopped countryman and defending champion Miguel Berchelt, age 29 years from Cancún, Quintana Roo, Mexico by tenth round KO at 2:59 at the MGM Grand Conference Center, Paradise, Nevada, U.S.A. grabbing the WBC super featherweight title.
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The three judges had the underdog Valdez leading 87-82, 88-81, and 89-80 when he scored a thundering KO left hook in the 10th round, with Berchelt taken to the hospital after getting up from the canvas and later given a clean bill of health.
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Valdez was clearly the leading offensive boxer per Compubox stats.
Punches thrown: Valdez 534, Berchelt 447
Punches landed: Valdez 149, Berchelt 99
Jabs landed: Valdez 46, Berchelt 35
Power punches landed: Valdez 103, Berchelt 64
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Valdez previously held the WBO featherweight title from 2016 to 2019. Valdez competed in the 2008 Beijing Olympics at the young age of 17 and later became the first Mexican Youth World Champion. Four years later, he qualified for the 2012 London Olympics. But he failed to win a medal in both Summer Games.
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Valdez won the vacant WBO featherweight title by a 2nd round demolition of Matias Rueda of Buenos Aires, Argentina on July 23, 2016 at the MGM Grand Garden Arena, Paradise, Nevada. He defended it six times.
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Before his defeat, Berchelt held the WBC super featherweight title from 2017 to 2021 and is ranked as the world's No. 1 super featherweight by the Transnational Boxing Rankings Board, The Ring and Boxrec.com. He won the title by stopping fellow Mexican Francisco Vargas by 11th round KO at 2:19 on January 28, 2017. He defended it six times, with five knockouts, before the loss to Valdez.
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Valdez handed Filipino Genesis Servania his first defeat but not after recovering from a knockdown and scoring a knockdown of his own, thereby retaining his WBO featherweight title via unanimous decision, 117-109, 116-110, 115-111.
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Servania dropped Valdez in round 4 with a right hand to the head. Servania went down by a big left hook in the 5th round. After round 6, it was Valdez who dominated until the end. Valdez connected 192 of 697 punches for 28%, while Servania, landed 120 of 450 punches thrown for 27%.
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Former four-division world champion Adrien Broner returned from two-year inactivity with a unanimous decision victory over Jovanie Santiago (14-1-1, 10 KOs), who absorbed his first defeat, in the main event of Showtime telecast last Saturday night from Mohegan Sun Arena in Uncasville, Connecticut.
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Broner (34-4-1, 24 KOs), who last fought against Manny Pacquiao in January 19, 2019, started rather slowly but found his range in the second half of the fight to spurt ahead on the judges’ scorecards. The fight was scored 116-111, 117-110 and 115-112 with all three judges had Broner winning rounds seven to ten.
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According to Compubox, Broner landed 35 of 138 punches in the first six rounds. Santiago landed 93 of 305 punches in the same duration. During the last half of the fight, Broner landed 63 of 300 punches while Santiago landed 114 of 392 punches.
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Broner, age 31 years from Cincinnati, Ohio, U.S.A., was formerly the WBO super featherweight champion, the WBC lightweight titlist, the WBA welterweight title holder, and the WBA light welterweight king.
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Santiago, age 31 years from Bayamon, Puerto Rico, was deducted a point by referee Arthur Mercante Jr. to close Round 4 despite both fighters connecting punches after the bell.
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Broner lost by unanimous decision to Pacquiao, 117–111, 116–112, 116–112 for the WBA (Regular) welterweight title at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada.
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According to CompuBox, Pacquiao landed 82 out of 197 of his power punches (42%) against Broner's 39 out of 180 power punches (22%). Total punches connected were 112 out of 568 (20%) for Pacquiao and 50 out of 295 (17%) for Broner.
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On Saturday night, the Miami Heat went to Staples Center for an NBA Finals rematch and got some revenge with a 96-94 victory over the Los Angeles Lakers. Without the injured Anthony Davis they were defeated by the Brooklyn Nets and now the Heat. They dipped to third place in the Western inference standings.
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Kendrick Nunn topscored with 27 points, Jimmy Butler had 24 points, eight rebounds and five assists and Bam Adebayo contributed 16 points, 10 rebounds and six assists. Kyle Kuzma sank 23 points to lead L.A. in scoring, while LeBron James finished with a near triple-double with 19 points, nine rebounds and nine assists.
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Hidilyn Diaz won the silver medal in the women's 53-kg weight division in the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Olympics, ending the Philippines' 20-year Olympic medal drought. She is also the first Filipino woman to win an Olympic medal. This was also the first non-boxing medal for the country since 1936.
Click here to view a list of other articles written by Maloney L. Samaco.
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