Jessie Magdaleno Defeats Nonito Donaire & Tyron Zeuge Stops Giovanni De Carolis

By Jeffrey “Italian Medallion” Cellini

At the Thomas & Mack Center in Las Vegas Saturday night, Jessie Magdaleno captured the WBO Junior Featherweight title from Nonito “The Filipino Flash” Donaire of the Philippines by unanimous decision. In an entertaining fight, all three judges favored the American by scores of 118-110 and 116-112 (twice).

“It feels great to be a champion”, said the new champion. The 24-year old Magdaleno, 24-0,17 KO’s continued, “I can’t believe this right now. I have so hard for this now. I can’t believe I beat a fighter like Donaire. I don’t have words to describe it”.
Jessie Magdaleno, who entered the fight as the number one contender, troubled the defending champion early with his hand speed, and seemed to have Donaire flat-footed at times throughout the fight.

However, the Filipino made a late surge, and seemed to hurt Magdaleno several times in the 10th round with a hard -right hands. The two fighters exchanged heavy blows in the 12th and final round, bringing the crowd to their feet.

The 33-year old Donaire was stunned by the judge’s scorecards. “I definitely won this fight. Losing never crossed my mind”, said the four-division world champion. “I never thought I could lose this. I had a great second half and I thought I controlled the fight. This is unbelievable”. Donaire, 37-4, 24 KO’s had won four straight fights in a row since his knockout loss to Nicholas Walters back in October 2014.

Also on the Manny Pacquiao – Jessie Vargas undercard, two-time Olympic gold medal winner Zou Shiming, 9-1, 2 KO’s defeated Prasitsak Phaprom, 39-2-2 24 KO’s by twelve-round unanimous decision to win the vacant WBO World Flyweight championship. The scores were 120-107 (twice) and 119-108.

At the MBS Arena, in Potsdam, Brandenburg, Germany, Tyron Zeuge, 19-0-1, 11 KO’s stopped Giovanni De Carolis, 24-7-1, 12 KO’s with just 19 seconds remaining in the 12th and final round of their fight to win the WBA World Super Middleweight title. The 24- year old Zeuge, from Germany, knocked down the Italian in the 12th round and kept pounding De Carolis before the referee intervened. The contest was evenly matched throughout most of the night, just as their first encounter was back on July 16th, when both fighters battled to a majority draw.

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