Johannesburg – South African Hekkie Budler gained the nod of the judges to retain his WBA and IBO strawweight titles with a points win over Mexican Jesus Silvestre in Monte Carlo on Saturday night.
Two judges made it 115-112 in Budler’s favour, while a third official came up with a curious and difficult to comprehend 117-110 verdict in favour of the South African at the Salle des Etoiles.
The fight was the main supporting bout to the publicised middleweight title contest between Gennady Golovkin and England’s Martin Murray.
Budler’s ability to absorb punishment proved to be his main asset and enabled him to hit back and frustrate Silvestre.
The Mexican was warned and then deducted a point by South African referee Stan Christodolou during the first two rounds for two low blows. The fight was halted for five minutes following the second of Silvestre’s indiscretions for the visibly hurt Budler to recover.
Budler avoided punishment in the middle rounds, after Silvestre’s early onslaught, with swift footwork and punches of his own.
Silvestre recovered in the final rounds, hurting Budler with succession of body blows. The South African’s corner implored him not to panic as the fighters came out for the 12th and final round.
Budler’s win extends his career record to 28 wins and one defeat, with an unbeaten sequence in 11 bouts over the last four years.
Silvestre, who had knocked out his opponents on 22 occasions in 30 career wins, suffered his sixth defeat against Budler. He however emerged with an enhanced reputation and the tag of unlucky loser.
He had come onto the scales at Friday’s weigh-in at 20g over the strawweight limit and needed to be granted an additional two hours to shed the excess.
At the end of the fight Silvestre Budler looked the more exhausted of the two. – Sapa