Sultan Nips Caraballo in KD-Filled Bout, Pinoy Bantamweight Bubble Holds
By Teodoro Medina Reynoso
PhilBoxing.com
Sun, 31 Oct 2021
Despite Michael Dasmarinas crashing out against Naoya Inoue and falling off his once lofty perch at world rankings, the unprecedented Pinoy surge in the bantamweight division continued with Nonito Donaire and Johnriel Casimero at the forefront and figuring to stay as such until the end of the year.
And as if to make up for Dasmarinas exit, Jonas Sultan earlier today officially joined the fray in the 118 lbs class by pounding out a close but unanimous decision over erstwhile undefeated Puerto Rican knockout artist Carlos Caraballo in a knockdown filled contest at the Madison Square Garden Theater in New York City.
Sultan now 18-5, 11 KOs won a ten round unanimous decision over previously undefeated Caraballo (now 14-1, 14 KOs). Sultan dropped Caraballo in round two. Sultan dropped Caraballo again in round three, but Caraballo got a knockdown when Sultan’s glove touched the canvas. Sultan dropped Caraballo again in rounds six and nine. Despite the four knockdowns scored by the Filipino, scores were only 94-93 3x for Sultan.
In the process, Sultan won the WBO intercontinental bantamweight title in this promotional offering of Bob Arum's Top Rank. He is figured to improve further in the world ranking with the win.
In the main event, another aspiring Puerto Rican fighter Joshua Vargas clashed against Mexican knockout artist Jose Zepeda in a scheduled 10 round world super lightweight title eliminator.
Unfortunately, Vargas opened up too cockily and ran into a strong left from Zepeda and fell down in a heap prompting the referee to immediately stop the contest and declare the Mexican winner by TKO. Hence, both aspiring Puerto Rican fighters lost their major bouts in New York.
However, Angel Marrero saved the weekend for Puerto Rico by outpointing Mexican Victor Betancourt in their 10 round lightweight main event bout in Kissimmee,Florida.
Click here to view a list of other articles written by Teodoro Medina Reynoso.
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