Anselmo Moreno v William Urina

The slippery Anselmo Moreno (34-2-1, 12), the man at Bantamweight, returned to the ring for the first time since losing to Abner Mares last year, at Super Bantamweight, and successfully defended his WBA "super" title with a clear decision over Colombian challenger William Urina (24-3, 20).

Moreno, known as "Chemito", was forced into an unfamiliar in the opening round, that of the attack as Urina tried to play counter puncher against one of the best in the sport. Unfortunately for Urina he was simply unable to counter the beautiful jab of Moreno which was connecting time and time again.

After 2 rounds of trying to counter Urina had to turn to plan and let his shots go first. He already 2 rounds in the hole and he had kept trying to fight as the counter puncher he'd have been shut out 120-108 without really putting up much of a fight. Unfortunately for Urina Plan B was no more effective than Plan A and almost every time he let his hands go he was forced to take 2 or 3 sharp counters in return.

The more Urina fell behind on the score cards the harder he tried to push the action and the more he was countered by Moreno who during several of the middle rounds was having a field day with a fighter who almost looked made to order. In fact for several rounds this looked like little more than a sparring session for Moreno who was so much better than Urina that he was hardly breaking a sweat to thoroughly out box a game but limited challenger.

By the end of round 7 Urina's head had started to drop. He, like many other Moreno opponents, was beginning to ask himself how he could land a clean blow on Moreno. It was like watching a man try to fight his shadow with the shadow punching back in beautiful clusters.

By round 10 it was clear Moreno was having fun, he was starting to almost neglect his excellent jab instead choosing to flurry to the body of Urina, his hands were dropping and whilst not being out-and-out disrespectful it was obvious he was doing whatever he wanted. It was hard to believe that this was a fighter who had been out of the ring since last November yet he was just looking so crisp and so smooth every round.

In the championship rounds it was clear that Urina would need a miracle. He was going to have to stop Moreno if he was going to win though of course it's rather hard to stop someone you can hardly catch clean and it proved to be beyond Urina's capabilities. Although  he tried his hardest in the final round, possibly the only one he won, he was unable to ever come close to hurting Moreno never mind stopping him.

Abner Mares v Anselmo Moreno

Mexican Abner Mares (25-0-1, 13) successfully retained his WBC Super Bantamweight title via a very controversial decision over Panamanian Anselmo Moreno (33-2-1, 12) with more than a little bit of help from referee Raul Caiz Jr who simply failed to be impartial. In fact it's fair to say that Caiz's job was almost as bad as that of Russell Mora who famously allowed Mares to get away with similar tactics against Joseph Agbeko.

The bout started very slowly with neither man taking control of the action in the opening few rounds. In fact the early rounds were highlighted by the fact that the fight failed to get going as the styles seemed to clash as opposed to gel. Sadly the issues with styles made the first few rounds very difficult to score as neither man really had any notable success.

In round 4 we sadly saw the start of the bouts controversy as Mares landed a very shot and instead of really telling Mares off, the referee decided that Moreno was to blame for the shot. Sadly Mares would land numerous low blows, at least double figures. Sadly it wasn't just the low blows that marred the bout but an awful knockdown call in favour of Mares in round 5, securing Mares a 10-8.

Following the knockdown Mares really started to step up the pressure and unleashing combinations to the body. Although Moreno slipped many of the shots going his way a fair few were landing, in fact Mares was getting more and more success as the bout went on. In round 7 however Caiz verbally warned Mares in fact stating "next time I'm taking a point" after another clear low blow. Sadly all subsequent low blows were ignored by Caiz despite Mares continuing to land them to the final bell on a semi-regular basis. Surprisingly however Caiz was more than happy to deduct a point from Moreno, with out a clear warning for holding the head down in round 10, further throwing coals on to the fire of Caiz being biased.

Mares continued to press the action late in the bout and although all the rounds were close it seemed that Mares had done enough to claim the bout, helped in part to the "knockdown" and deduction against Moreno. It had been close but those points had made things all but certain for Mares.

The scores were read out and unsurprisingly Mares was a winner by unanimous decision with 2 of the cards having the bout close but fair (116-110, 8 rounds to 4) however the final card was simply a joke that matched Caiz's refereeing giving Mares the bout 120-106.

Whilst it's easy to like Mares' style which is all action, it's impossible to like the number of breaks he gets. The fights with Vic Darchinyan, Joseph Agbeko (first fight) and now this one all raise eye brows as to the way they were officiated and scored and Mares may well be getting himself a reputation as one of Golden Boy's "protected" fighters in terms of officiating (though clearly not match making). If Mares gets to face Nonito Donaire, the fighter he called out after the bout, you can bet your bottom dollar that Bob Arum will want to be the promoter.

For Moreno it's likely he'll drop back to Bantamweight where he currently holds the WBA "super" title.