MANILA, Philippines – Michael Farenas scored a controversial second round technical knockout (TKO) win over Mexican Hector Velazquez on Friday, March 21 in the Filoil Flying V Arena in San Juan City.
Referee Bruce McTavish called a halt with just 1:14 left in the second round after the two fighters clashed heads while exchanging punches, leading to a nasty cut within the right eye of Velazquez.
While there was an accidental head butt, McTavish said he was out of position and deferred to the ringside judges, two of which ruled the cut to be the product of a punch.
With the ruling, Farenas was able to wrest WBC Asia Continental junior lightweight title.
Michael Farenas improved to 38-4-4 with 30 knockouts.
Hector Velazquez (56-21-3, 38 KOs) initially came in five pounds overweight heading into the weigh in yesterday, and had to desperately tire himself just to make the 130-pound featherweight limit.
Without much action yet, the disappointed Tijuana, Baja California journeyman dropped his 21st bout.
“I don’t know about that. That is bullshit,” said Velazquez’s handler Mike Lopez who was visibly angered by the decision.
Penalosa survives acid test, goes 8-0
Earlier, 23-year-old featherweight prospect Dave Peñalosa (8-0, 5 KOs) faced the toughest test yet in his young career, going toe to toe with Los Mochis, Mexico’s Alem Robles (6-5-2, 2 KOs).
Penalosa played catch up for the almost the entire bout but pulled off a surprising 58-56, 58-56, 59-56 unanimous decision win to extend his unbeaten run to 8-0.
Penalosa never got his bearings going and got pounded by a heavy volume of punches unloaded by Robles.
The southpaw Penalosa landed big shots to the body but not enough to wear down Robles, who hit the Filipino with combinations to the head.
Robles took a lot of punishment in the final round of their 6-round encounter as Penalosa appeared wary that he needed a knockout to win. Robles fended off the attempt, but failed to impress the judges in the end. – Rappler.com
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