Pinoy fighter Silvester Lopez captures WBC international title

Silvester Lopez had to muster his inner boxing skills and timing to overcome Rex Wao in their scheduled 12-round contest at the Elorde Sports Center on Sunday to capture the WBC international bantamweight title.

 

Lopez, a former WBC silver super flyweight champion, improved his record to 23-9-2 with 17 knockouts. Wao on the other hand tasted defeat for the first time in his career as his record dropped to 10-1 with 8 knockouts.

 

Both fighters went straight to business and traded hard shots in the center of the ring in round one. Midway through the round, Wao went down to the canvass after a series of Lopez combinations to the face and body.

 

For most of the fight, Wao was on a relentless attack but left too many openings in the process. Lopez was able to stun Wao with left hook to the jaw in round 6. Lopez wasn't able to followup, allowing Wao to recover and throw hard shots in the last 10 seconds.

 

A double left hook to the top and body sent Wao to the canvass for the second time in the fight. He won't be beat the count this time around giving Lopez a knockout victory at the 2:35 mark of round 7.

 

Meanwhile, the vacant WBC international featherweight title remain unclaimed when southpaw Dennis Tubieron (19-3-2, 8KOs) fought Carlo Magali (19-7-3, 9KOs) to a 12-round majority draw on the undercard.

 

Magali was getting the better of the fight in the early rounds with his crisp right hand and hard left hooks. Tubieron boxed and moved midway through the fight, landing clean left uppercuts and right hooks up to the final bell.

 

One judge scored the fight 115-113 for Tubieron while the other two had it a 114-114 draw. — JST, GMA News