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Tonight’s HBO Broadcast took place at the Thomas and Mack Center in Las Vegas, Nevada and HBO’s broadcast team announced that the fight was sold out.
The first televised bout of the night was between Guillermo Rigondeaux (10-0) and Robert Marroquin (22-1) for the WBA Junior Featherweight Title. Rigondeaux was last seen exciting the Las Vegas crowd with a 5 knockdown whooping on Philadelphia native Teon Kennedy.
The first bout did not start off as a thrilling affair. Rigondeaux, the smaller fighter and superbly talented southpaw, picked Marroquin apart with his jab and elusive defense. Marroquin suffered a cut above his right eye early on in the fight from a southpaw, and was unable to launch an effective offense attack on the slick Cuban fighter.
Rigondeaux easily slipped most of Marroquin’s punches and knocked him down in the fifth round with a straight left hand. Marroquin landed two solid punches in the night, a left hook in round three and round nine that stunned Rigondeaux, but he did not land much else the rest of the fight.
Rigondeaux knocked Marroquin down again in the last round with a straight left hand then straight right hand combination and ended the fight strongly. Rigondeaux easily scored the unanimous decision victory with scores of 118-108, 118-108, and 118-109.
The next bout of the night was between Joachim Alcine (33-2-1) and Matthew Macklin (28-4) in the middleweight division. Macklin landed some early body shots in the first round, and Alcine seemingly turned his back and walked away from Macklin. Macklin connected with a beautiful right cross that knocked Alcine down. He was still wobbly when he got his feet and got knocked down again by a left hook. When Alcine got back to his feet Macklin jumped right back on him with combinations by the corner and Alcine was unable to fight back and the referee wisely stopped the fight at 2:36 of the first round.
The next fight was for the WBO Super Featherweight Title between Mexican fight Miguel Beltran Jr. (27-1) and Puerto Rican fighter Roman “Rocky” Martinez (25-1). There’s always seems to be at least one fight on a major card that thrills the crowd with nonstop action, and this fight was a very fun fight to watch.
Martinez applied the pressure and stalked Beltran, but Beltran was landing the harder and cleaner punches. Martinez started off slow in the first round, and was more effective when he was able to stay in tight and work over Beltran with short shots. Beltran was not as active as Martinez, but when he landed the harder and louder punches, and snapped the head of Martinez backwards several times.
Beltran may have hurt his hands in the sixth round as he could be seen shaking his hands as if they may be hurt. Beltran was warned in the eighth round for hitting Martinez in the back of the head.
Martinez and Beltran continued to exchange combinations and engage in a brutal battle of wills as each fighter took the best the other had to offer.
In round 11 Beltran hit Martinez behind the head again, and the referee took a point away. In the last round they touched gloves and showed each other proper respect and ended the fight exchanging bombs.
This was a terribly close fight, and a rematch would be well deserved and one that most fight fans would watch. In the end the judges scored it 116-111 Beltran, 114-113 Martinez, 114-113 Martinez.
The point deduction cost Miguel Beltran the fight, but a rematch should happen.
