LAS VEGAS – Unbeaten Carlos Utria opened the pay-per-view portion of Saturday night’s Rolly Romero-Teofimo Lopez card with a jeered split-decision victory over Israel Mercado.
Judges Chris Migliore (96-94) and Patricia Morse Jarman (97-93) scored the 140lbs bout for Utria while Steve Weisfeld had it 96-94 for Mercado.
“You won!” a fan inside T-Mobile Arena roared at Mercado, 13-2-2, as the booed Utria improved to 15-0.
Colombia’s Utria, 22, won the WBC Grand Prix 140lbs final in Saudi Arabia, but the veteran Mercado, the WBA’s No. 10-ranked contender, expressed no concerns in pre-fight interviews that he was being fed to the hard-hitting prospect.
Mercado’s developed game and counter-punching skills matched well against Utria’s power punching through six rounds. Utria backed Mercado with a body blow in the fifth and Mercado delivered a clean combination.
The eighth was loaded with quality exchanges and powerful deliveries by both fighters as each sought to seize the lead.
While Utria sent hard rights at Mercado to start the 10th, Mercado responded impressively with a head-jarring right uppercut and relentless pressure over the final two minutes-plus.
“I thought I won the fight. I’ve been here many times before. I’ve been on the downside of decisions like this. This fight meant a lot, but we keep moving forward,” Mercado said. “I had him buzzed with a couple shots. I had him backpedaling. I out-jabbed him, threw better combinations and my defense was on point. I’ve never felt better after a fight.
“I wish I would have got the win, but I put on a hell of a show.”
Mercado raised his hands at the final bell, almost consoling Utria before the judges turned the tables.
“We’ll keep working,” Utria said afterward. “I have a few things I need to fix. I think the travel took a toll on me, more than anything. I don’t think I got enough rest; it was nothing but traveling.”
In a bout for the WBA interim junior-featherweight title that was sorely lacking for action through 11 rounds, Gary Antonio Russell knocked down Victor Santillan to open the 12th and captured the title by scores of 118-109 (Max Deluca) 119-108 (John McCarthy) and 119-108 (Don Trella).
A right hook to the head dropped Santillan quickly in the 12th, clinching the outcome defined by Russell’s boxing acumen.
It runs in the family, with Russell’s trainer-brother Gary Russell Jnr standing as former featherweight champion and his other sibling, Gary Antuanne Russell, wearing the WBA 140lbs belt.
The victory moves Gary Antonio Russell one giant step closer to a title-fight position behind undisputed 122lbs champion Naoya Inoue of Japan, who will likely either defend his belts against three-division champion Jesse “Bam” Rodriguez next, or move to featherweight.
Neither fighter asserted themselves through the first four rounds marred by holding and posturing. At one point in the fourth, the pair were holding and spinning, arousing whistling of disdain from the audience.
Russell, 22-1, then sought to deliver digging punches to the gut, reliving his gritty ProBoxTV victory last year over Dervin Rodriguez.
The slightly increased activity saw Dominican Republic’s Santillan 16-3 also tend to the body, but the opposing left-handers left something to be desired from the crowd raining boos upon them in the 10th.
It was Russell’s knockdown that revived everybody, moving him a step away from an unprecedented trio of brotherly world champions.
He said that I was predictable, but we saw tonight that my skillset was better,” said Russell, post-fight. “He’s a tough opponent but we stuck to the game plan. The last round I really wanted to take it to him. I felt like I had taken all the other rounds clear. I wanted to finish strong and give the fans what they came to see.
“It feels really good. The only thing that’s missing is my pops. Outside of that, it feels wonderful. We want to keep collecting belts and keep the dynasty going. We’re gonna get back in the gym and see what the best move is for me. Hopefully it’s another champion. There are a lot of great opponents at 122 pounds and we’re looking to see them.”
In the preliminaries, Marco Romero swapped pounding Kahlil Mitchell in opposite corners, finishing him with a flurry just 2:33 into the first round for a technical-knockout victory in middleweight action.
Romero, 15-0 (13 KOs), said the quick work warrants an immediate turnaround, asking Premier Boxing Champions leadership to place him on the September 19 PBC card in San Diego headlined by Mexico’s WBC interim 140lbs champion Isaac “Pitbull” Cruz. Mitchell, of Chattanooga, Tennessee, dropped to 6-2.
Florida’s Joseph Brown improved to 8-0 by sweeping all three scorecards 60-54 over junior-middleweight Alton Wiggins, 3-3-1.
Aldo Blancas knocked down Ricky Mamone once en route to a unanimous-decision triumph by scores of 39-36, 39-36, 40-35 to improve to 3-0 in 140lbs action.
Unbeaten welterweight Benjamin Johnson opened the show and only blemished his record by failing to extend his career-long knockout streak, defeating Ecuador’s Jose Gabriel Rodriguez, 4-4-1, by unanimous-decision scores of 60-54, 60-54, 59-55.
Johnson, of Springdale, Maryland, is now 8-0 with seven KOs.
