“Prince” Albert Pagara lost his WBO Intercontinental Super Bantamweight title to Cesar Juarez of Mexico at the San Mateo Events Center in San Mateo, California, USA Sunday morning (Manila Time).
Pagara was off to a good start, scoring an early knockdown with a well-timed hook to counter the Mexican in the final seconds of the opening round. In the succeeding rounds, the 22-year-old Cebuano was able to keep his distance against the aggressive Juarez.
By the fifth round, Juarez started to heat up and was able to land his uppercuts and body shots on Pagara, who showed signs of slowing down due to accumulation of damage. In the sixth, Pagara fired a 1-2 punch combination to the head of the stalking Juarez, yet the latter was able to unleash three right hooks to close out the round.
Juarez connected on heavy blows to Pagara in the seventh round as he continued to pin him to the corners, which forced the 22-year-old to go for the clinch. And by the start of the eighth round, the fighting lawyer from Mexico City came out charging – landing three hard blows that threw Pagara out of his senses to earn the knockout victory.
The fight was officially stopped 15 seconds into the eighth round.
Pagara was taken out of the ring on a stretcher after the fight. Fortunately for the Cebuano, the concussion test results came out negative after the mandatory check-up according to Dyan Castillejo of ABS-CBN.
Juarez’ (18-5, 14KO) victory snaps his losing funk after back-to-back losses to Donaire and Giovanni Delgado. On the other hand, Pagara suffers his first professional loss of his career after a 26-fight win streak.
In the co-main event of the evening, Jason “El Niño” Pagara came out on top, dispatching Mexican Abraham Alvarez (21-10-1) in three rounds. The bout was officially stopped at the 55 second mark of the third frame.
The number two-ranked Filipino welterweight brings his record up to 39-2, 24 coming by way of stoppages.
