[Thomas Hearns]

Kinchen upsets Martinez!

Always dangerous #31 James Kinchen 26-3-0 (22) scored a slim but important majority decision win against Argentine top fighter #16 Sergio Martinez 32-0-0 (23).
With the highlight of a devastating cross to the chin Kinchen easily dominated the first round. On the second round the fight changed dramatically when Martinez connected a hard body shot and dropped Kinchen for a four count.
On the third round Kinchen regained the control of the fight and on the fourth stanza he dropped Martinez with a hard cross to the chin. Martinez got up and survived the rest of the round.
On rounds five and six Martinez found his best boxing and dominated with speed and mobility.
With the highlight of a quick hook to the head that stunned his rival Kinchen reapeared on the fight winning the seventh round.
Martinez won the eighth round that had a big exchange of punches at the middle stages of it. Entering on the last two rounds the fight was very even.
On the ninth round Kinchen connected a hard uppercut and hurt Martinez but the argentine had his moment on the last seconds of the round when he shook Kinchen with a hard combination. On the last round Kinchen made Martinez retreat with a hard right to the chin to convincingly won the round. The scorecards were 95-94 95-93 for Kinchen and 94-94. (Fightnews card: 95-93 for Kinchen).

On the co-feature fight #48 Miguel Angel Arroyo 21-5-0 (10) defeated #77 Manny Siaca 21-9-0 (16) by TKO5. The fighters split the first two rounds and after and even third round, Arroyo dropped Siacca with a vicious uppercut to the chim on the fourth stanza, Siaca got up at seven and survived the round but in very bad shape. On the following round Arroyo went for the definition and punished Siaca for almost three minutes until the referee stopped the fight. At the time of the stoppage the scorecards were 39-37 (x2) for Arroyo and 38-38.