Fighting in Photos – Carrington outpoints Palacios to defend title in Cleveland

CLEVELAND – Bruce Carrington had his first defense of the WBC featherweight title against 9th ranked contender Rene Palacios at the Wolstein Center, and won by unanimous decision with scores of 116-112, 117-111 and 118-110.

Carrington (18-0, 10 KOs) started off the fight by landing the jab and moved at spots to get away from the punches thrown by Palacios (19-1-1, 10 KOs). The Brooklyn born champion was able to build an early lead on the scorecards, but Palacios was game as he was landing hooks around the guard of Carrington. A left hand by Palacios landed with under a minute left in the seventh round, and a right hand thrown by Palacios in the eighth round seemed to drop Carrington but it was not scored a knockdown as referee Harvey Dock ruled that it was behind the head.

With open scoring being applied to this fight by the WBC, Carrington was well ahead on the cards through eight rounds. Despite Palacios landing a body shot in the eleventh round that had an effect on Carrington, it was not enough to swing the fight in his favor.

The moments of adversity that Carrington went through in this fight was something that he felt was missing in his career.

“These are the fights that I have been wanting,” Carrington said after the bout. “There were some tough moments, including the body shot. But it’s part of the game.”

He did acknowledge that the body shot affected him but he fought through it.

“Body shots are the worst, but I had to fight on. I have that warrior mentality.”

Carrington now looks ahead to what could be next as he has two wins this year. His goal is to be a unified champion in the division.

“I want to unify. I want to fight the best of the division. And that’s whoever the champions are.”