Merlito Sabillo v Luis De La Rosa

Unheralded Filipino Merlito Sabillo (21-0, 10) made a statement this past weekend to the Minimumweight division as he traveled to Colombia and defeated Colombian Luis De La Rosa (21-2-1, 12) in eye catching fashion to claim the WBO interim Minimumweight title.

The fight started fast as both men came out with bad intentions and it was Sabillo who got an early upper hand inflicting a cut on to De La Rosa in the opening round. Although many fighters go in to their shell when cut it seemed to merely spur on De La Rosa who fought like a wounded animal intent on taking out his attacker.

With De La Rosa cut and Sabillo going toe-to-toe with his opponent the fight quickly erupted in to a war as both men took turns in firing bombs at the other. Neither man willing to back down though neither man quite able to get an upper hand against an opponent who was wanting to claim a portion of the world title. The action was relentless as both men tried their hardest to rock the other and take them out of their game plan though neither man could manage it in the opening half of the bout.

After the back and forth action of the first 7 rounds Sabillo finally got a clear upper hand as he felled De La Rosa in round 8. Although De La Rosa rose to his feet he was back down soon afterwards as Sabillo took advantage of his woozy opponent and forced the stoppage just seconds later.

Although the Colombian fighter had lost the crowd gave both men a show of hands as the local mayor also welcomed Sabillo to return to the area to fight another Colombian fighter later this year. Looking at this it would appear that Sabillo has made a new set of fans as boxing for once treat the away fighter with the dignity and respect they deserved.

Although the full version of the WBO Minimumweight title is held by Mexican Moises Fuentes, rumours are rife that Sabillo will be upgraded to the full champion in the coming months as Fuentes, who was a huge guy at Minimumweight, simply cannot make the 105lb limit. Fuentes, who drew recently with Donnie Nietes (who like Sabillo is a Filipino fighter and part of the ALA Gym) is expected to chase a rematch with Nietes if he can even manage to make 108lbs again, if not he could well move to 112lbs later this year.

Jesus Silvestre v Takuya Mitamura

Mexican Jesus Silvestre (26-3, 19) successfully defended his WBA "interim" Minimumweight title for the first time as he stopped previously unbeaten Japanese challenger Takuya Mitamura (12-1, 2) in just 4 rounds.

Silvestre started the fight well and used both accurate hurtful counters as well as some thudding combinations in the early rounds to hurt Mitamura who, despite landing his own shots did little to really stop Silvestre from doing as he wished.

By the end of the third round it appeared that Silvestre's hurtful body punches were taking their toll out of Mitamura and early in the fourth round the Japanese fighter was stopped effectively a broken man.

Despite the victory being a decent one for Silvestre, I do have to wonder how he would fair with the top guys at 105lbs. Countrymen Mario Rodriguez (IBF) and Moises Fuentes (WBO) would both be great unification bouts with a lot of action and excitement, however Silvestre would likely lose to any of the top Japanese fighters (Kazuto Ioka, Akira Yaegashi or  Katsunari Takayama).

For Mitamura the logical next fight is a bout with rising young star Ryuji Hara (13-0, 10) who won Mitamura's old Japanese Minimumweight title in midweek.

Jesus Silvestre v Edwin Diaz

In a bout that we simply can't get our head around Jesus Silvestre (25-3, 18) claimed the interim WBA World Minimumweight title by out pointing journeyman Edwin Diaz (15-18, 5). Whilst we have to say well done to Silvestre we really need to ask what the WBA were doing.

Firstly, the full WBA Minimumweight title was recently won by Kazuto Ioka (10-0, 6) who unified the title with the WBC Minimumweight title by out pointing Akira Yeagashi on June 20th. Just 4 and a half weeks after Ioka claims the full version of the title the WBA manage to sanction an interim title fight, quite why they bothered I have no idea. Whilst it's pretty common knowledge that Ioka is looking to move to Light Flyweight it would have made more sense to wait until Ioka has made his decision before "whoring" out an interim title.

Secondly the WBA had Silvestre fighting for an interim Minimumweight title in November 2011, in that bout Silvestre lost a decision for the title to Paipharob Kokietgym. Whilst we are aware that Paipharob hasn't fought since then that shouldn't have meant his "interim" title should have been stripped from him, especially not if the guy he beats is then going to get a chance to win the same title. Interestingly in between the Paipharob and this fight Silvestre fought just once, beating Marvin Diaz who was 1-1-1 going into facing Silvestre.

Thirdly and finally Edwin Diaz was 15-17 (5) going into this bout! Amazingly he had only won one bona fide Minimumweight bout in his career, defeating Carlos Velarde (UD8) in a bout for the WBA Fedecaribe Minimumweight title.

Whilst I've yet to see the actual bout it's self I can't say it's something I'm that interested in seeing. Lets just hope that the WBA stop having bouts like this which do more damage than good for the sport.