A roundup of the past week's notable boxing results from around the world:
Saturday at Tecate, Mexico
Antonio DeMarco W10 Luis Solis
Welterweight
Scores: 99-89 (three times)
Records: DeMarco (32-6-1, 23 KOs); Solis (20-8-4, 17 KOs)
Rafael's remarks: Former lightweight world titleholder DeMarco, 31, of Mexico, out of action for 14 months and coming off three consecutive decision losses to quality opponents in Omar Figueroa Jr., Rances Barthelemy and Jessie Vargas, returned to action and cruised to a win against 24-year-old countryman Solis. DeMarco scored the only knockdown of the bout in the second round. He did look a bit rusty but worked things out as the fight moved along. Solis, whose four-fight winning streak came to an end, had a point deducted in the seventh round for holding DeMarco's head down while they were in a clinch.
Saturday at Carshalton, England
Anthony Yigit W12 Lenny Daws
Wins vacant European junior welterweight title
Scores: 118-110 (twice), 116-112
Records: Yigit (19-0-1, 7 KOs); Daws (30-5-2, 11 KOs)
Rafael's remarks: Yigit, 25, of native of Sweden living in England, went to Daws' hometown and won a dominant decision in something of a historical accomplishment. By beating the 38-year-old Daws for the vacant European 140-pound title, Yigit became the first Swedish fighter in 30 years to claim a European title, joining the likes of Harry Persson, Olle Tandberg, Ingemar Johansson, Anders Eklund, John Andersson and Bo Hogberg. Daws, who was coming off a 10th-round disqualification loss for an intentional head butt against Ruben Nieto for the vacant European junior welterweight title in December 2015, lost his second fight in a row.
Saturday at Caguas, Puerto Rico
Angel "Tito" Acosta TKO10 Jafet Uutoni
Junior flyweight - Title eliminator
Records: Acosta (16-0, 16 KOs); Uutoni (11-2, 4 KOs)
Rafael's remarks: Acosta, 26, of Puerto Rico, one of the top young fighters in the stable of Miguel Cotto Promotions, earned a shot at 108-pound world titleholder Kosei Tanaka (8-0, 5, KOs), the 21-year-old from Japan who has already won world titles in two weight divisions, with this one-sided knockout of Uutoni, 37, of Namibia. Acosta scored knockdowns in the second, fifth, eighth and 10th rounds, finally finishing him with a four-punch combination that sent Uutoni to the mat to all fours as referee Robert Ramirez Jr. waved off the fight at 1 minute, 1 second of the 10th round. Acosta is next due to challenge Tanaka in the mandatory title fight within the next 90 days.
Friday at Miami, Okla.
Ivan Baranchyk W10 Abel Ramos
Junior welterweight
Scores: 99-91, 97-92, 97-93
Records: Baranchyk (14-0, 10 KOs); Ramos (17-2-2, 12 KOs)
Rafael's remarks: What a fight! This may go down as the most exciting fight in the history of Showtime's "ShoBox: The New Generation," which has been around since 2001. "The Beast" Baranchyk, a 24-year-old Russian prospect fighting out of New York, and Ramos, 25, of Casa Grande, Arizona, put on a sensational fight of the year-caliber slugfest that was a lot closer than the wide scores indicate. The fight went from interesting to thrilling in the third round when both fighters got knocked down. Ramos had dominated the round when Baranchyk clobbered him with an overhand right to knock him down with 40 seconds left. But seconds before the bell ended the round, Ramos dropped Baranchyk with a nice left hand to end the wild round. During the toe-to-toe fourth round, Baranchyk appeared hurt from a series of body blows before he dropped Ramos again with a left hook. The sixth round was another round of pure action as they smashed each other around the ring. The action rarely relented the rest of the way, but it was the better conditioned Baranchyk to was winning rounds and busting up Ramos.
Joseph "Mack" Williams W8 Lenin Castillo
Light heavyweight
Scores: 78-74, 77-75, 76-76
Records: Williams (11-0, 7 KOs); Castillo (15-1-1, 10 KOs)
Rafael's remarks: In a mild upset, Williams, 28, a former national Golden Gloves champion from Far Rockaway, New York, eked out a majority decision against Castillo, 28, a former Dominican Republic Olympian, in a slow-paced, hard to score fight. Castillo appeared to get off to a good start over the first few rounds, but Williams likely got the nod because he was noticeably busier overall than Castillo, throwing 373 to Castillo's 280 punches. But neither boxer was all that effective or landed a whole lot of clean shots. Williams was frustrated by Castillo's constant holding and, to Castillo's credit, he was frustrated with himself and did not complain about the scoring.
Jon Fernandez TKO3 Ernesto Garza III
Junior lightweight
Records: Fernandez (11-0, 9 KOs); Garza III (7-2, 4 KOs)
Rafael's remarks: Fernandez, 21, of Spain, who is co-promoted by former middleweight world champion Sergio Martinez, looked like a prospect to keep an eye on after the way he dismantled Garza, 28, a southpaw from of Fort Hood, Texas, who was fighting for only the second time in 18 months. Fernandez, fighting in the United States for the second time, with a 5½-inch height advantage, towered over Garza. He buckled Garza with a right hand and then knocked him down with a series of blows in the first round. Fernandez basically landed at will as Garza showed a big heart to stay upright through the rest of the first round and the second. But as Fernandez continued to land big shots in the third round, referee Gary Ritter had seen enough and waved off the fight at 1 minute, 39 seconds.
Friday at Toledo, Ohio
Robert Easter Jr. W12 Luis Cruz - Fight recap
Retains a lightweight title
Scores: 119-106, 118-107, 117-108
Records: Easter Jr. (19-0, 14 KOs); Cruz (22-5-1, 16 KOs)
Rafael's remarks: Easter, 26, one of boxing's best young talents, was thrilled to fight in his hometown for the first time as he made his first title defense in the main event of a Premier Boxing Champions card on Bounce TV. Although Easter did not give the raucous crowd of around 10,000 the knockout that it and he very much wanted, he impressed nonetheless in the expected rout of a second-tier handpicked opponent in Cruz, 31, of Puerto Rico, who showed immense heart but was never in the fight. Easter used his longer reach, powerful jab and overall talent advantage to take Cruz apart. He dropped him three times, once each in the 10th, 11th and 12th round -- all with powerful right hands -- and cruised to the victory, although referee Lonnie Scott could have easily stopped the fight at any time in the final three rounds as Easter dished out a beating to Cruz. After the fight Easter called for unification fights with the other 135-pound world titleholders, Mikey Garcia, Jorge Linares and Terry Flanagan.
Zhanat Zhakiyanov W12 Rau'shee Warren - Fight recap
Wins a bantamweight title
Scores: 116-110, 115-111 Zhakiyanov, 115-111 Warren
Records: Zhakiyanov (27-1, 18 KOs); Warren (14-2, 4 KOs)
Rafael's remarks: In an upset Zhakiyanov, 33, of Kazakhstan, somehow survived two knockdowns in the opening round to work his way back into the fight and pull out a split decision against Warren, 29, of Cincinnati, the only three-time U.S. Olympic boxer, who was making his first title defense against the interim titleholder and mandatory challenger. It was a very grueling fight that really could have gone either way with several hard rounds to score, other than the first round. With the victory, Zhakiyanov became the first world titleholder trained by British legend Ricky Hatton, who did a fine job in the corner.
Terrell Gausha W10 Luis Hernandez
Middleweight
Scores: 98-90 (twice), 97-91
Records: Gausha (20-0, 9 KOs); Hernandez (15-4, 8 KOs)
Rafael's remarks: Gausha, 29, a 2012 U.S. Olympian from Cleveland, looked sharp through the first two rounds and then suddenly found himself on the deck when Hernandez, 30, of Puerto Rico scored a clean knockdown with a big overhand right that caught him clean. That was the one big moment of the fight for Hernandez, who was otherwise outclassed. In the seventh round, referee Jim Howe deducted a point from Hernandez for repeatedly throwing low blows. Gausha landed many big punches, especially in the ninth round when he appeared to be close to getting a stoppage.
Also on the card, lightweight Jamel Herring (16-1, 9 KOs), a 31-year-old 2012 U.S. Olympian from Coram, New York, bounced back from his first loss, a 10th-round knockout to contender Denis Shafikov in July, to knock out Armenia native Art Hovhannisyan (17-4-3, 9 KOs), 35, of Glendale, California, at the end of the third round.