Claggett Overwhelms Madueno as Butler Scores Late Knockout
Junior welterweight Steve Claggett (37-7-2, 25KO) overwhelmed a much younger Miguel Madueno (30-2, 28KO) with a high-volume output.
From the start of the fight, it was a phone booth, in-your-chest type of battle. Madueno came out prepared for war by throwing combination punches at the aggressive Canadian.
Claggett quickly attacked the body with hard hooks and took advantage of his opponents lack of defense by landing the overhand right.
It was a battle of attrition as Claggett turned up the pressure in the middle rounds. He started using the angles to land thirteen to fourteen shots in a row as Madueno was beginning to wilt.
In the closing rounds, Claggett went into another gear fighting at an even more fierce pace. Regardless of Madueno landing the occasion hard shots, The Dragon was relentless in landing constant unanswered combinations without missing a beat.
Two judges scored it 99-91, with one seeing it 98-92 for Claggett. Ranked #15 by the WBC, he is begging to make some noise and is riding a serious career turnaround in the second half of his career.
STEVEN BUTLER RALLIES LATE FOR THE STOPPAGE AGAINST IVAN ALVAREZ
In a middleweight battle, Steven “Bang Bang” Butler (33-4-1, 27KO) rallied late to score the stoppage over Ivan Alvarez (32-15-4, 21KO).
This fight was intense early as both fighters had their share of shenanigans. Butler was using the forearm to push off and hold the Mexican at bay before landing hard right hands. Alvarez retaliated by hitting behind the head and was being taken out of his game plan.
After surviving a flurry of hard shots from Alvarez when in a phonebooth, Butler used pure boxing ability to start taking control of the fight.
What Alvarez lacked in speed was made up for in timing. In the middle rounds, he found a home for the right hand and uppercuts that stopped Butler’s momentum.
With the fight looking close, Butler unloaded a surge of right hands that dropped the Mexican twice in the ninth round. Despite Alvarez getting back up on unstable legs, the referee waved off the fight.
This was a good bounce back victory for Butler, who was coming off a knockout lose against WBO champion Janibek Alimkhanuly on May 13.
