Mendoza, Sanchez lose by decision; Moreu wins by TKO
Mar. 30—Ukraine's Serhii Bohachuk, exerting relentless pressure throughout, defeated New Mexico's Brian Mendoza by unanimous, 12-round decision on Saturday at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada.
With the victory, Bohachuk earned the WBC interim super welterweight title and possibly a shot at California's Sebastian Fundora, who upset Australia's Tim Tszyu by split decision in Saturday's main event — claiming the WBC and WBO world super welter belts.
The judges scores were 117-111, 117-111 and 118-110 for Bohachuk (27-1, 26 KOs). Mendoza (22-4, 16 KOs) became the first fighter to go the prescribed distance with the hard-punching Ukrainian.
The Cleveland High School graduate is the only fighter to have beaten Fundora, the new world champion, having knocked him out in the seventh round last April.
Against Bohachuk, who kept his hands high in protecting himself from the devastating left hook that spelled the end for Fundora last year, Mendoza was unable to land that one big punch — too busy, for most of the 12 rounds, trying to keep Bohachuk off of him.
Mendoza landed some powerful body shots and appeared to stun Boharchuk with a power punch to the head in the 11th round, but was unable to take advantage.
"(Bohachuk) was the better man tonight. What can I say," Mendoza said in the ring afterward on the Prime streaming of Saturday's card.
Mendoza had accepted the fight on 12 days' notice after Keith Thurman, Tszyu's original opponent, withdrew due to an injury. Fundora, who was scheduled to fight Bohachuk, was elevated to the main event. Mendoza stepped in to face Bohachuk.
In other bouts on Saturday involving New Mexico fighters:
In Inglewood, Calif., Albuquerque welterweight Jose Luis "Guero" Sanchez (14-4-1, four KOs) lost by 10-round split decision to unbeaten Santiago Dominguez (27-0, 20 KOs) of Ciudad Obregon, Sonora.
The scorecards read 97-93 for Sanchez and 97-93 and 96-94 for Dominguez.
Sanchez, facing a Golden Boy Promotions fighter, almost played the role of spoiler again. Last October in Las Vegas, Sanchez defeated previously unbeaten Golden Boy prospect Eric Tudor by unanimous decision.
In San Antonio, Texas, Albuquerque's Sharahya Moreu improved to 2-0 with a first-round victory by TKO over Jessie Clark (pro debut) of Nacogdoches, Texas.
Moreu quickly dropped Clark with a body shot. After the Texas boxer got to her feet, another Moreu left hook to the body prompted the referee to stop the fight at 1:31 of the first.
