Alberto "Explosivo" Machado (20-0, 16 KOs) of San Juan, Puerto Rico, retained his WBA Super Featherweight World Title by beating previously undefeated Rafael "Sweet Pea" Mensah (31-1, 23 KOs) of Accra, Ghana via 10-round unanimous decision at the Hard Rock Hotel & Casino in Las Vegas. (photos by Ed Mulholland/HBO).
Machado dropped Mensah with a hard right hook in the first round and hurt him several times en route to earning three scores of 120-107.
Yamagucho Falcao (16-0, 6 KOs) of Sao Paolo, Brazil scored a 10-round unanimous decision victory against Elias Espadas (17-4, 12 KOs) of Merida, Mexico in a middleweight bout. In what was very controversial battle, Falcao won with scores of 96-92, 96-92, and 95-93.
Puerto Rican prospect Carlos Caraballo (8-0, 8 KOs) passed his toughest test to date as he scored a fifth-round technical knockout win against Jesus Martinez (24-4, 12 KOs) of Monteria, Colombia in a super bantamweight battle originally slated for eight rounds. Caraballo fought a patient fight, wearing Martinez down until the fight was stopped by the referee at the end of the fifth round.
Las Vegas native Blair Cobbs (9-0-1, 5 KOs) scored a technical knockout victory at 1:52 of the second round against Emmanuel Valadez (5-5, 4 KOs) of Agua Prieta, Mexico in a scheduled six-round super welterweight fight.
