Xu stuns Rojas in battle of featherweights
Print Edition
Chinese boxer Xu Can registered a stunning upset of Jesus Rojas with a 12-round unanimous decision victory in a featherweight title fight on Saturday.
The 24-year-old Xu went on the offensive landing solid combinations and forcing Rojas to go into a defensive shell for several rounds.
The three judges scored it 118-110, 117-111, and 116-112.
Xu earned the lesser version of the World Boxing Association’s two featherweight titles but showed he is now a force to be recognized in the weight class. One judge had him winning all but two rounds.
“(The power is) from China. I am Chinese,” Xu said. “I knew I can defeat this fighter, I knew I can defend his punch, even though he’s very strong. I just punched and punched and punched.”
Xu was fighting on the undercard of a boxing event at the Toyota Center in Houston, Texas.
He has won 13 straight fights and improves to 16-2 despite coming into the fight as a heavy underdog.
The Suzhou-born Xu landed 30.5 percent of his punches while Rojas landed 29.2 percent.
Xu was coming off a split decision victory over Mexico’s Enrique Bernache in September.
The 32-year-old Rojas, of Puerto Rico, dropped to 26-3-2, with 19 knockouts.
In New York, Keith Thurman returned from a near two-year layoff to retain his WBA welterweight world title with a 12-round majority decision over Josesito Lopez on Saturday.
American Thurman, showing no sign of rust, knocked down Lopez with a massive left hook to the chin in the second as he controlled the early rounds.
He weathered a storm in the middle rounds, with Lopez unleashing a fierce barrage in the seventh that had the champion in trouble.
Thurman was deemed the winner by two judges by scores off 115-111 and 117-109 with the third seeing it a 113-113 draw.
“The champ is back!” said Thurman, who was forced to surrender his World Boxing Council belt as he was idled by injury but retained his WBA “super” world title, one rung above the “regular” WBA belt held by Manny Pacquiao.
Thurman, who improved to 29-0 with 22 KOs, said he’d be ready to take on the Filipino ring icon before the year is out.
“Maybe Brooklyn, maybe Vegas, wherever Manny Pacquiao wants it,” Thurman said. “I’d even fight him in the Philippines if I have to.”
Thurman was fighting for the first time since edging Danny Garcia by split decision in March 2017 to unify two 147-pound titles. The next month he had surgery to remove calcium deposits from his right elbow, and as he was readying to return to the ring he suffered a left hand injury in March 2018 that forced him to take more time off.
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