Takashi Miura retained his WBC super featherweight title belt on Saturday, defeating upstart challenger Sergio Thompson in a unanimous decision at Plaza de Toros in Cancun, Mexico.
When the dust settled after the highly entertaining bout between the 29-year-old boxers, the three judges scored it at 113-112, 114-110 and 114-111—all in favor of Miura (h/t ESPN Deportes' Salvador Rodriguez).
Yeyo hit the canvas twice, which ultimately prevented him from capturing the championship in Miura's maiden defense.
Although Miura had the slight upper hand throughout the evening, the fight did go the full distance and was by no means a breeze, as CBCSports.ca's Chris Iorfida observed:
David Avila of UppercutMagazine.com reported that after the fight, Miura went to a local hospital and was apparently throwing up blood:
Hopefully Miura has a speedy and full recovery after paying a punishing price for the victory.
Through six rounds, it appeared that Miura would cruise to a victory, but Thompson fought valiantly, even decking Miura at one point with a strong right hook to make things interesting ahead of Round 8.
Thompson is a Mexican native, so the crowd was behind him to spur him on, and even the referee wouldn't allow him to quit when he was visibly fatigued near the end:
Battling against a supremely quick southpaw in Miura proved to be slightly too difficult, though, as the Japanese champion Miura was rock-solid and relentless in his own right. Eventually, Thompson's attempts at defense proved futile as he wore down but never quit.
The loss dropped Thompson to 27-3 for his career, but considering he's won 25 of those prior fights by knockout, it was worth sticking around to see if he could land the proper shot to drop Miura for good.
Meanwhile, the more technically sound, gutsy and methodical Miura boosted his record to 26-2-2 in keeping hold of the belt he won in April over Thompson's compatriot, Gamaliel Diaz.
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