Junior welterweight Mario ‘El Azteca’ Barrios 25-0 (16) managed to hold on for a 12-round points win over a fast finishing Batyr Akhmedov 7-1 (6) at the Staples Center in Los Angeles, California on Saturday night.
The 24-year-old Barrios scored knockdowns in fourth and 12th rounds to secure the victory by scores of 115-111, 116-111 and 114-112.
The entertaining fight took place on the undercard of the welterweight unification bout between Errol Spence and Shawn Porter.
“I knew this was going to be a war. He was getting dirty in there but the Mexican warrior in me was not going to let this opportunity pass me by,” Barrios said.
“I dug deep and got the victory… I promised my city of San Antonio that I would bring this title back home and I did it.”
Batyr Akhmedov, a 28-year-old southpaw from Russia, said he was disappointed the judges didn’t see the fight his way.
“The judges see better than I can from the ring. I did everything I could. I thought I won the fight. They decided that he won the fight. When I watch the fight I’ll be able to tell you what it looked like,” Akhmedov said.
“My job is to do everything to win. The judges are supposed to judge correctly. I tried to do everything I could. I was told that I wouldn’t be able to handle his experience, but he was on the ropes most of the fight. I beat him up and I thought I won the fight.
“The plan was to gradually grow the activity. I knew that I had to win by a wide margin. After the first knockdown, I knew that I had to add activity more quickly than I had planned. So I started being more aggressive. I did everything I could to try to stop him.”
 managed to hold on for a 12-round points win over a fast finishing Batyr Akhmedov 7-1 (6) at the Staples Center in Los Angeles, California on Saturday night.){kind=link}