By Alexey Sukachev

Monte Carlo - WBA world bantamweight king Jamie McDonnell (29-2-1, 13KOs) was very fortunate to retain his world title over Liberio Solis (25-5-1, 11KOs), a former IBF world champion at super flyweight. The scores were 116-112, 115-113 and 117-111. Many at ringside, including the Sky Sports broadcasters, had Solis winning the fight.

It was the fifth defence for the Doncaster ace, who followed his stoppage win over Javier Chacon with a pair of impressive wins over Tomoki Kameda in Texas last year and stopped Fernando Vargas in nine rounds at The O2 in London this April.

Solis was boxing for the second time to become a two-weight world champion having severely tested WBC king Shinsuke Yamanaka in Japan in March, with both men hitting the canvas before the champion outpointed the Venezuelan challenger.

This time WBA #2 Solis wasted no time for warming up, immediately going after the much taller McDonnell. He was using his long arms to tag McDonnell, who looked rusty and slow in the opening rounds. Solis used a bit of a peek-a-boo defense coming in, fired off long lean right hands and jumped out when McDonnell tried to retaliate. The Brit tried to put Solis inside to use body punches and uppercuts to slow him down.

While on the outside Jamie did his best to make his jab working but it hasn't been working steadily for sure. Solis had a good round four, then the British fighter began to alternate the flow of the fight.

After the mid-wy point, McDonnell's body punches began to work their magic as Solis was slowing down. Still, exchanges were heated, and both fighters had their chances. Round nine was huge for the defending champion, who rocked Solis late in the round with monstrous left hooks. Solis also lost the tenth but came back strong in the eleventh, wobbling McDonnell slightly with his right hand bomb. Both boxers gave their all in the twelfth and final round.

The WBA "Super" champion in this weight class is three-time American Olympian Rau'shee Warren. Promoter Eddie Hearn indicated in a post-fight interview that McDonnell would most probably move up in weight.