Hooker KOs Saucedo, defends WBO junior welterweight title
Posted Nov 17, 2018 02:03:55 AM.
This article is more than 5 years old.
OKLAHOMA CITY — Maurice Hooker spoiled Alex Saucedo’s homecoming by knocking him out in the seventh round Friday night to successfully defend his WBO junior welterweight title.
In front of a crowd of 4,102 at Chesapeake Energy Arena, Hooker (25-0-3, 17 KOs) dominated much of the action.
Hooker used his reach to keep Saucedo at bay in the first round. Saucedo (28-1) put Hooker on the canvas with a right early in the second round, sending the crowd into a frenzy. Hooker’s nose was bloodied in the second round, but Saucedo couldn’t finish him.
Saucedo, who grew up in Oklahoma City, had Hooker on the ropes for most of the fifth round, but Hooker showed he had some energy left with a flurry in the closing seconds of the round.
Hooker took charge in the seventh. He forced a standing eight count, and then completed a technical knockout later in the round.
Hooker, a Dallas native, was defending his title for the first time. He won the vacant belt against Terry Flanagan in a split-decision June 9 in Flanagan’s hometown of Manchester, England.
In the other big match of the night, Egidijus Kavaliauskas (21-0, 17 KOs) knocked out Nicaragua’s Roberto Arriaza (17-1) in the third round with WBO world welterweight champion Terence Crawford watching at ringside.
Arriaza looked strong in the first round. Kavaliauskas rallied in the second, despite suffering a cut under his right eye from a head butt. The “Mean Machine” knocked Arriaza out with a crushing right to the head in the final seconds of the third round.
Bob Arum, CEO of Top Rank Boxing, promotes both Crawford and Kavaliauskas. He said they “are going to look very closely at having Egidijus challenge Crawford for the welterweight title” in the first quarter of 2019.
“I want to fight the best in the welterweight division, and the best guy right now is Terence Crawford,” Kavaliauskas said. “I am ready for that fight next.”
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Cliff Brunt, The Associated Press
