Mario Barrios W12 Fabian Maidana... Mario “El Azteca” Barrios, of San Antonio, Texas retained his interim WBC title for the first time with a unanimous decision win against Fabian “TNT” Maidana of Buenos Aires. The welterweight contest was part of the Canelo-Munguia undercard in Las Vegas. Patiently stalking his adversary, the six-foot-tall Barrios, 146.6 pounds, pressed forward but rarely let his hands go early on, letting Maidana outwork him. In round three, however, Barrios closed the distance to land a short chopping right hand to deck the Argentinian. Throwing wild hooks, Maidana, 146.2 lbs., did his best to keep Barrios off of him, sometimes catching his foe but not deterring him. By the eighth round, Barrios began to jab and increase his punch output to dominate the rest of the bout. Sporting a swollen left eye, Barrios improved to 29-2 with 18 KOs. The judges turned in three scores of 116-111. Maidana, the younger brother of former champion Marcos Maidana, is now 22-3 with 16 KOs.

 

The WBC welterweight world champion is presently Terence Crawford, who captured the title from Errol Spence last July. Crawford, however, plans to challenge for the WBA and WBO interim world titles at super welterweight in August.