The Star in Frisco, Texas, played host to Golden Boy Boxing on ESPN Saturday night as Pablo Cesar Cano (30-6-1, 21 KOs) and Fidel Maldonado (24-3-1, 19 KOs) faced off in the main event for the vacant WBC Fecarbox Super Lightweight title.
Maldonado, a tough southpaw, came into the bout on a five-bout winning streak and looked to make a statement over the former interim WBA Super Lightweight champ. As the bout commenced, both guys took the first round easy and chose to size each other up. In the second round, Maldonado found a place for his stiff left hand and connected a handful of times very cleanly.
Cano would connect some shots but nothing that would keep Maldonado from pressing the action early on. It wasn’t until the end of the fourth round that Cano made his mark on the fight by dropping Maldonado with a quick one-two combo. Maldonado didn’t seem to be stunned by the combo and rose to his feet quickly before the standing eight count and finished out the round.
Maldonado recovered well and came out of his corner motivated in the following rounds and tried to really take it to Cano. Cano was no pushover and stayed toe to toe with Maldonado the whole way through. Cano did find some success in the middle-to-late rounds, but it was Maldonado who landed the stronger blows that sparked a roar from the crowd watching.
Both fighters came into the final rounds still throwing a high volume of punches but it was Maldonado who closed the championship rounds more convincingly. After 10 rounds of action, we went to the judge’s scorecards for a split-decision victory.
Final scorecards read 97-92 two times and 96-93 respectively, giving Fidel Maldonado the win and crowing him the new WBC Fecarbox Super Lightweight champion. With the win, Maldonado keeps his hopes of a title shot within reach and will look to continue to impress in the months to come.
Photo by Porfirio Barron Jr./RBRBoxing
