Melvin Jerusalem made the third defence of his WBC strawweight title when he earned a unanimous decision over Siyakholwa Kuse on The Thrilla in Manila II promotion staged on the golden anniversary of Ali-Frazier III.
At Araneta Coliseum in Quezon City, Philippines, the titlist was awarded for his aggression by earning scores of 115-113, 116-112 and 116-112.
Kuse, 22, was – following a competitive start – dropped in the third round when off-balance and caught by Jerusalem’s left hand, but was ruled by the referee Cesar Castanon Varela to have slipped.
The 31-year-old Jerusalem regardless responded by thereafter attempting to seek a stoppage, and yet found his South African challenger not only willing to attempt to match him physically, but effective on the inside. The scores were perhaps a little too wide in Jerusalem’s favour.
The Filipino is expected to pursue a rematch with the WBA and WBO champion Oscar Collazo, or an alternative unification contest with the IBF titlist Pedro Taduran, also of the Philippines.
The middleweight grandson of the great Muhammad Ali, Nico Ali Walsh, had by then drawn over eight rounds with Thailand’s Kittisak Klinson. The scores were 76-76, 76-76 and 77-75 in Klinson’s favour.
“First off I want to thank God for this opportunity,” Ali Walsh said, post-fight. “Thank you to everyone for coming out. The Filipino fans are amazing. Thank you to my opponent, to [IBA president] Umar Kremlev and Manny Pacquiao for the opportunity.
“I wouldn’t be here if not for God and my grandfather, so I want to thank my grandfather for putting on an amazing show 50 years ago in this arena. I don’t agree with the decision, but I know you all saw the real victor.”
The 10-round middleweight contest between Eumir Marcial and Eddy Colmenares concluded as a majority decision in favour of Marcial, despite his being knocked down in the third round.
The WBC’s open-scoring system regardless showed Marcial narrowly leading entering the final rounds, but he was knocked down again with just 20 seconds remaining before recovering, surviving, and being awarded scores of 95-93, 95-93 and 94-94.
There was also a unanimous decision, over 10 rounds, for the featherweight Carl Jammes Martin over Aran Dipaen. The judges scored 98-90, 97-92 and 98-91 in his favour.
Arvin Magramo earned a split decision, at junior flyweight, over Berland Robles. Robles had a point deducted in the final round, contributing to the scores of 95-94, 94-95 and 96-93 that favoured Magramo.
At featherweight, the former junior-featherweight titlist Marlon Tapales stopped Fernando Toro two minutes and 31 seconds into the sixth round. Toro was also knocked down in the sixth.
Eman Bacosa and Ronerick Ballesteros won their respective lightweight contests, against Nico Salado and Speedy Boy Acope, via unanimous decision and stoppage. Bacosa earned scores of 58-55, 58-55 and 60-53, having also knocked Salado down in the fourth. Ballesteros was awarded victory 50 seconds into the fifth round; he also recorded knockdowns in the second and fifth.
In the two IBA Pro contests, respectively at middleweight and heavyweight, Vadim Tukov and Chris Thompson earned eight-round decisions over Sena Agbeko and Georgiy Yunovidov.
