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HBO World Championship Boxing Results: Donaire and Pavlik Score Decision Victories
By: William Holmes
Top Rank promotions held a card with two of their top stars, Kelly Pavlik and Nonito Donaire, in an outdoor arena in Carson, California on Saturday night.
The opening bout of the night was between Kelly Pavlik (39-2) and Will Rosinsky (14-1) in the super middleweight division. Pavlik just fought a month ago in Las Vegas on ESPN Friday Night Fights and had took such little damage that he was able to come out and fight again as a last minute replacement on HBO.
Photo: Chris Farina. Top Rank
Rosinsky came out aggressive and landed a few sold overhand rights while leading in with a jab early in the first round. Pavlik had the clear height advantage on Rosinsky and was able to start sitting on his punches and knocked Rosinsky down in the second round with a solid right hand to the chin of Rosinsky. After the knockdown Pavlik looked extremely confident and was able to stay aggressive on Rosinsky and slowly battered him from corner to corner as Rosinsky circled around the ring.
It was obvious by the middle of the fight that Pavlik had too much power for Rosinsky, and he was able to win a clear decision. Rosinsky may have won the first round, but the rest of the fight should have been scored in favor of Pavlik. The official scores were 98-91, 98-91, and 97-92 for Kelly Pavlik.
Pavlik didn’t get a sensation knockout, but he looked solid tonight and may be ready for some of the big names in the super middleweight division.
The main event of the night was between Nonito Donaire (28-1) and Jeffrey Mathebula (26-3-2) for the WBO and IBF Junior Featherweight titles. Even though a top five pound for pound fighter was in the main event, the crowd was sparse.
Mathebula had the height advantage on Donaire, which was something Donaire has rarely experienced in his career. Donaire was not fazed by the Mathebula height, and was able to tag Mathebula with several hard straight right hands and lead left hooks in the first round.
Mathebula was able to touch Donaire with combinations in the second round and was giving him problems, but Donaire crushed the jaw of Mathebula with a right hook in the fourth round and knocked him down. Mathebula was able to beat the count but was clearly hurt.
Surprisingly Mathebula was more effective with his jab after the knock down, and was able to avoid some of the power shots of Donaire. Mathebula was landing more, but Donaire was landing the harder shots.
By the 11th round the fight was close and Mathebula may have done enough in the middle rounds to be ahead or at least have tied it up in front of the judges. Donaire stepped on the gas pedal in the 11th round and Mathebula was spitting up blood in his corner before the 12th round began.
Mathebula gave Donaire a much tougher fight than expected, and he may have suffered a broken jaw in the process. However it was not enough, and the official scores were 117-110, 118-109, 119-108 for Nonito Donaire.
