Jermall Charlo scored a successful title defense of his WBC belt, besting Juan Montiel.
The bout headlined the Premier Boxing Champions event live from the Toyota Center in Houston.
“I saw the crowd behind me, my city was behind me,” said the 31-year-old Charlo, who made the fourth defense of his title and was fighting for the fourth time in his hometown. “I put them on my back. Career high in punches thrown? I still have more to come.”
Charlo landed more than twice the amount of punches as Montiel (258-127), including a career-high 201 power punches. Montiel miraculously survived a grueling sixth round, despite being on the receiving end of 36 punches landed, a majority of them thrown with malice behind them.
“It took a real warrior to get in the ring with me,” Charlo told Showtime reporter Jim Gray following the bout. “He fought each and every round as hard as he could and I could tell by his eyes that he’s a true warrior from the beginning and he wanted to fight. It didn’t matter what I hit him with, he wanted more. I love that spirit. He’s going to be great.”
In the co-main event, a highly anticipated battle between power-punching Mexico City natives, 23-year-old top lightweight contender Isaac Cruz (22-1-1, 15 KOs) scored a wide unanimous decision over former champion Francisco Vargas (27-3-2, 19 KOs). The official scores were 100-89, 99-90 and 97-92.
In a highly competitive and entertaining opening bout, former world champion Angelo Leo (21-1, 9 KOs) earned a hard-fought majority decision over Aaron Alameda (25-2, 13 KOs). The judges scored the fight 98-92, 96-94 and 95-95.