Filipino Merlito Sabillo (23-0, 12) successfully defended his WBO Minimumweight title for the first time as stopped Colombian challenger Jorle Estrada (17-7, 6).
The bout started well for Sabillo who applied intelligent pressure whilst landing shots with both hands. Unfortunately it was obvious from the opening round that Estrada hadn't really come to fight but instead was there to make life difficult for Sabillo.
In the second round Sabillo began to target the body, an idea that seemed to be about slowing down the tricky Estrada. It was the body attack that appeared to hurt Estrada in round 3 as Sabillo continued to bag rounds with little real challenge. Unfortunately for Sabillo however Estrada showed his toughness and managed to ride out the storm in rounds 3 and 4.
Having realised that Estrada was there to survive more than win Sabillo started to try and box off the back foot, luring Estrada in. This tactic had mixed success with Estrada becoming wise and not really falling for it as much as Sabillo would have liked, though it did give Sabillo one or two chances to land something hard up top.
Although Estrada had promised a knockout in round 7 he did little to force it and whilst he did open up a bit more the pace of the bout seemed to completely dissipate in easily the least memorable round of the fight.
Thankfully Sabillo remembered where he was in round 8 and went back after the out matched challenger who was hurt late in the round but managed to see out the bell. The following round however Sabillo wouldn't be so kind to Estrada and this time he made his body shot really count sending Estrada down for the count on a shot that quite possibly left the Colombian with a broken rib or two.
Following the bout Sabillo was questioned about who he was wanting to make his second defense again though seemed to suggest that it was up to his promoters ALA as opposed to himself, hopefully it'll be a bigger test than Estrada who was poor from start to end.
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