Julio Cesar Chavez Jr bizarrely pulled out of his fight with Daniel Jacobs after five rounds on Friday night citing a hand injury.
His father, the all-time Mexican boxing legend sat at ringside, was visibly disappointed by his son’s withdrawal.
Chavez Jr had, 24 hours earlier, missed weight by a remarkable five pounds but 11th-hour negotiations held the fight together, only for him to bring a premature and unexpected conclusion to it.
No injury was obvious to Chavez Jr during the five rounds that he boxed but he told his corner that he could not continue between rounds.
“He quit on the stool,” Jacobs said post-fight.
“That was the biggest opponent I’d ever had in my career. I knew it was a matter of time until he got tired. I made investments to the body.”
Chavez Jr revealed a bleached blonde and blue haircut during his ring-walk and looked powerful for the duration, until the anti-climatic end. It was a fourth career defeat for him – two years ago he lost to countryman Saul ‘Canelo’ Alvarez.
For Jacobs the result represented a victorious first fight at super-middleweight, after stepping up a division.
The two-time middleweight world champion from New York had lost to Canelo and Gennadiy Golovkin and was reinventing himself by chasing a shot at a new division’s title.
Chavez Jr, meanwhile, was booed out of the ring and escorted backstage by the actor Mickey Rourke.
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Julio Cesar Martinez battered Cristofer Rosales to win the WBC flyweight title that had recently been vacated by Charlie Edwards.
Mexico’s Martinez, earlier this year, thought he had knocked Edwards out but the result was overturned to a ‘no contest’ after an instant replay because the decisive punch was illegal.
But the heavy-handed Martinez claimed the belt on Friday night with a ninth-round stoppage of Rosales, another former opponent of Edwards’.
Maurice Hooker blitzed Uriel Perez, stopping him in the first round, before calling out Scotland’s IBF and WBA super-lightweight champion Josh Taylor.
Hooker lost for the first time in his previous outing, against Jose Ramirez in a world title unification bout, but stormed back with a vengeance against Perez.
“I want my belt back and I’ll do whatever it takes,” Hooker said.
Source: SkySports