Zayas Defeats Garcia; Carrington Wins WBC Interim Title

Photos: Mikey Williams/Top Rank

Xander Zayas (22-0, 13 KOs) outboxed Jorge “Chino” Garcia (33-5, 26 KOs) to claim the vacant WBO junior middleweight title on Saturday night inside The Theater at Madison Square Garden in New York City. Garcia had some moments, but Zayas used his quickness and mobility to mostly keep Garcia at a distance en route to a 116-112, 118-110, 119-109 unanimous decision. Zayas is currently the youngest active world champion in boxing.

In a clash between unbeaten featherweights, WBC #1, WBA #2 Bruce “Shu Shu” Carrington (16-0, 9 KOs) scored a workmanlike twelve round unanimous decision over WBC #11 Mateus Heita (14-1, 9 KOs) to claim the vacant WBC interim world title. Carrington was in control all the way of a bout that never really heated up. Scores were 119-109, 119-109, 120-108.

Unbeaten junior welterweight Emiliano Vargas (15-0, 13 KOs) needed just 42 seconds to annihilate Alexander Espinoza (20-4-1, 9 KOs). A right hand laid out Espinoza.

Other Bouts

In a clash between welterweight contenders, unbeaten WBO #7, WBC #11 Rohan Polanco (16-0, 10 KOs) won a ten round unanimous decision over WBO #12 Quinton Randall (15-2-1, 3 KOs). Scores were 97-93, 100-90, 99-91.

Puerto Rican Olympian junior bantamweight Juanmita Lopez De Jesus (3-0, 2 KOs), son of Juanma Lopez, crushed Jorge Gonzalez-Sanchez (5-3, 4 KOs) in two rounds. Juanmita dropped Gonzalez-Sanchez (5-2, 4 KOs) twice in the first round, and the bout was stopped in round two. Premature stoppage.

Unbeaten featherweight Yan Carlos Santana-Guerrero (15-0, 12 KOs) shut out former world title challenger Aaron Alameda (30-3, 17 KOs) over ten rounds. Scores were 100-90 3x.