Juan Francisco Estrada v Milan Melindo

In a riveting contest for the WBA "super" and WBO Flyweight Juan Francisco Estrada (25-2, 18) narrowly out pointed Filipino challenger Milan Melindo (29-1, 12).

The fight started relatively well for the defending champion who appeared to take the opening 2 rounds with his jab and combinations as Melindo slowly worked his way in to the bout with his sharp and accurate shots. It seemed that although Estrada was doing enough to win the rounds Melindo was making a strong case to claim them with his own work rate.

As we entered the middle rounds it seemed that Melindo was growing in confidence and went from making rounds competitive to arguably claiming several of them as the bout turned in to a high speed chess match. It appeared that if the bout continued to be a chess match then it was going to begin to totally turn Melindo's way with his technically superior skills. Despite the visible success for Melindo Estrada never seemed too bothered in trying to change the direction of the fight as he seemed to feel he was doing enough to bag the rounds. Looking back it appeared he was viewing the bout the same was as the judges.

To the neutral observer it was starting to look like the bout was up for grabs in the championship rounds with an upset clearly possible. Estrada tried to change that in round 11 as he took the fight to a tiring Melindo and dropped the Filipino late in the round. Although Estrada recovered his feet and made it to the bell it was beginning to look like he was all in and was going to have to run to see out the final round.

Estrada set out for round 12 the way he had ended round 11 and appeared to clearly hurt Melindo late in the round with the Filipino's legs buckling big time. Unfortunately for Mexican he couldn't finish off Melindo who showed guts and determination to see out the bell.

I myself had the bout very close and expected the decision to be either a very close unanimous decision or even a split. Instead the scorecards were all in favour of the defending champion who impressed the judges much more than he had impressed me, which was odd because I usually love watching Estrada. Saying that however it does appear that there is a lot more to Estrada than being a insanely fun to watch and teak tough brawler.