Floyd Jr-Mosley undercards close to Pinoy boxers

Two of the three supporting bouts in the much-hyped Floyd Mayweather Jr.-Sugar Shane Mosley bout had relevance to two former Filipino world champions. Jose Miguel Cotto and teenage sensation Saul "El Canelo" Alvarez, who went toe-to-toe in their action-packed encounter, both have significance to People's Champ Champion Manny Pacquiao. Jose Miguel is the older brother of Miguel, who fought and lost via technical knockout to Pacquiao, the world’s seven-division world champion and No.1 pound-for-pound fighter in the world. Alvarez, the 19-year-old fighter, had former world champion Oscar Larios working on his corner. Larios, of course, is probably the most friendly among Pacquiao's Mexican opponents. Although he lost to the man regarded as one of boxing’s biggest draw today, Larios has shown tremendous respect and admiration for Pacquiao. Then, there's Juan Ponce de Leon, who won via a close unanimous decision over Cornelius Lock in their 10-round title bout. De Leon is the man responsible for stopping Rey "Boom Boom" Bautista in just the first round of their 12-round encounter on August 11, 2007, while also dealing former world champion Gerry Peñalosa a 12-round beating the same year. Alvarez stuns Cotto in battle of ages Among those fighting in the undercard, it was Alvarez who stole the spotlight and grabbed much attention among boxing experts. Starting his career at the young age of 15, boxing's 19-year-old teenage sensation outslugged the more experienced Cotto, whom he stopped after 2:59 of the ninth round to retain his NABF welterweight title. Alvarez has a record of 30 wins, no losses and one draw. He is hoping to finally earn a shot for a world title bout this year. Alvarez is among the top-ranked welterweight fighters by the WBC, WBA and WBO. He is ranked fourth by the WBC behind division champion Andre Berto and seventh to WBA title holder Shane Mosley. And in the WBO, which is currently ruled by Pacquiao, Alvarez is ranked fifth. De Leon outpointed Lock in an interesting bout that could have gone either way. Although De Leon won on the judges' scorecards, the margin wasn't that decisive. Two judges gave De Leon a 96-94 edge over Lock while the other third saw it at 97-93. In the early bout, Said Ouali of Morocco bounced back from a first-round knockdown then brought his rival Hector Saldiva down the canvass twice to complete a sensational technical knockout win. - JVP/Rey Joble, GMANews.TV.