SAN ANTONIO—Manny Pacquiao stopped Jorge Solis with a powerful right hand in the eighth round Saturday night after struggling through the opening five rounds and being cut by a head butt in the sixth.
Pacquiao (44-3-2, 34 knockouts) holds the WBC international super featherweight belt, and is the WBC’s No. 1 contender to the super featherweight title held by Juan Manuel Marquez of Mexico. Solis, the brother of IBF light flyweight champion Ulises Solis, lost for the first time in 35 fights.
“With respect to Manny Pacquiao, my wife hits harder,” Solis said. “He’s very fast, very quick, and I didn’t see those punches.”
The head butt occurred when Pacquiao lunged toward Solis in the middle of the ring. Pacquiao appeared clearly upset, and began connecting efficiently on Solis.
“He decided to move his head (in this fight),” Pacquiao said. “Every time he danced, he moved his head. When I got the cut, I decided to pressure him and make it a (slug) fest.”
Later in the sixth, Pacquiao pushed Solis into the corner and threw a flurry of punches. Pacquiao knocked down Solis twice in the eighth, the end coming 1:16 into the round in the scheduled 12-round bout.
Also, Cristian Mijares (31-3-2) won a 12-round unanimous decision over fellow Mexican Jorge Arce to keep his WBC super flyweight title. Mijares opened a deep cut on the bridge of Arce’s nose in the ninth round. Arce dropped to 46-4-1.
Edgar Sosa (27-5) of Mexico City won the 12th and final round to claim the vacant WBC light flyweight over former Olympian Brian Viloria (19-2) of Hawaii. It was a majority decision with two judges scoring it 115-113 and the other calling it a draw.
In a non-title welterweight bout, Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. remained undefeated (31-0-1, 24 knockouts) when the referee stopped his fight against Anthony Shuler at 1:32 of the second round.
Chavez, the son of former titleholder Julio Cesar Chavez, knocked down Shuler (20-5-1) twice in the round. The second time came after Chavez threw a quick combination to Shuler’s head, knocking the Indianapolis fighter flat and bringing the stoppage without a count from the referee. (AP)
