‘One-armed’ Cuello loses to Chinese in Dubai

Carlos Cinco

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Fighting with only one arm healthy, Denver Cuello lost a majority decision to Xiong Zhao Zhong.

File photo by EPA.

SINGAPORE – The WBC minimumweight title fight between Denver “The Excitement” Cuello (33-5-6, 21 knockouts) and Xiong Zhao Zhong (21-4-1, 11 knockouts), which took place at the World Trade Centre in Dubai Friday night, June 28, was bizarre to say the least.

The fight featured multiple clashes of heads in virtually every round sans the first, which was the only round that resembled an actual boxing match.

Xiong was making the first defense of his 105 lb. strap which he lifted from Mexican Javier Martinez Resendiz last year. He is the first and only Chinese world champion in boxing history, and looked to stay true to that honor against the hard hitting southpaw from the Philippines.

Despite being the challenger however, Cuello stormed out of the gates with bad intentions in his fiery left hand, went right at the champion and connected with a thunderous left hook to the chin in the early going.

Xiong stumbled on to the canvass, dazed and out of sync, surprised with Cuello’s vaunted punching power. He then beat the count and managed to stay on his feet for the rest of the round, but not without a little bicycle riding.

At least in the first round, Cuello apparently had the advantage in brute strength and aggressiveness, and certainly got off to a great start.

Unfortunately, it all went south from there.

One-handed fighter

Things began to unravel in the 2nd round.

As powerful as Cuello was with his poisonous left hand uppercuts to the body and cracking left hooks to the head, he wasn’t throwing any right hands – at all.

He wasn’t setting anything up. He had no jab. He never even feinted with the right, which seemed odd. Something was definitely wrong.

The same continued on for the rest of the bout, all the way up to the 12th and final round. Later developments in the fight revealed Cuello was nursing an injured right rotator cuff, which hindered his ability to throw any punch with his right hand.

Tough luck for Cuello, who waited years for an opportunity to compete for a world championship, he now had to find a way to gut out a victory with seemingly one arm tied behind his back.

Which, at this level of boxing, is next to impossible.

The defending champion Xiong then turned up the tempo and attacked Cuello with combinations, sending the Filipino backpedalling. To his credit, Cuello did put on a brilliant display of foot work and head movement which got him through the majority of the rounds, but things were definitely starting to get deteriorate.

Frequent head clashes caused a few cuts and bruises here and there for both fighters. In the 9th round another clash of heads resulted in a nasty gash on Cuello’s forehead. As per WBC rules, the uncut fighter, in this case Xiong, was deducted a point.

Cuello constantly sought out referee and corner intervention, complaining about head butts and elbows, and the fight turned from rough and rugged to downright ugly.

The final bell

Much of the same persisted for the remainder of the fight. It was a barn burner stained with controversy. When it was all over, both fighters were raised on their respective team’s shoulders.

The score cards read 113-113, 115-112 and 113-110 for Xiong in a Majority Decision (MD) win.

The bout was the first world championship contest to be held in Dubai. Xiong got the judges’ nod by outpunching Cuello with a higher work rate and managing to stay on his feet for the most part.

The loss snapped Cuello’s win streak which ended at 12, and Xiong was gifted his first successful title defense.

Though one has to wonder, had Cuello fought with the services of his other arm, the result would have been completely different.

Xiong showed nothing out of the ordinary in defeating Cuello, who fought at a hefty disadvantage. It took him 12 rounds and all he could muster was a majority decision. Cuello on the other hand, fought like a true warrior, battling through debilitating pain and injury. He’d do much better in a rematch.

Unfortunately for Cuello, Xiong and his handlers would be wise to steer clear of him the rest of the way.

A rematch is highly unlikely and Xiong will most probably move on, sending Cuello back to the drawing board in terms of trying to secure another world title opportunity, which has been difficult his entire career. – Rappler.com

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