By Miguel Rivera
Super flyweight McWilliams Arroyo (17-3, 14 KOs) made a big statement on Saturday night, when snapped a two year layoff to win a ten round majority decision over heavily favored former world champion Carlos Cuadras (36-3-1, 27 KOs) at The Forum in Los Angeles, California.
The victory gave Arroyo the vacant WBC silver title and puts him in line for a shot at WBC champion Srisaket Sor Rungvisai, who fought in the main event with a close decision win over Juan Francisco Estrada.
The loss was the second defeat in a row for Cuadras, who was coming off a twelve round decision loss to Juan Francisco Estrada last September. And now Cuadras has lost three of his last four bouts, with the other defeat coming at the hands of Roman Gonzalez.
Cuadras changed everything around after his defeat at the hands of Estrada.
He hired veteran trainer Abel Sanchez and staged his entire training camp in Big Bear, California.
Prior to the fight, he felt like a new man, but during the fight he felt hindered in his ability to get things going.
The Mexican boxer offered no excuses regarding the loss and vowed to come back even strong in the coming months.
"I felt like I couldn't get things going and I felt stiff all night. I could not do what I wanted to do. On the basis of conditioning I felt very good. We will have to rise up from this defeat," said Cuadras.
Sanchez, who is now going to prepare Gennady Golovkin for his May rematch with Canelo Alvarez, was impressed with Arroyo.
"Arroyo made a very smart fight, he did not allow Cuadras to do what we had prepared for the fight. We worked hard during the preparation, but the result was not what we wanted to happen," said Sanchez.