LOS ANGELES – It was a wait. It was rugged. It was worth it.
Noel Mikaelian responded to a narrow cruiserweight title loss in May by reclaiming his WBC belt Saturday night, defeating Badou Jack by unanimous decision scores of 115-111, 116-110, 116-110 here at Ace Mission Studios.
Promoted by Don King, Mikaelian, 28-3, relied on activity and a power-punches-landed advantage to decide the outcome, remaining busier and hurling heavy punches on the 42-year-old outgoing titleholder off breaks.
Former three-division champion Jack, 29-4-3, indicated he’ll consider retirement after the loss.
“No excuses, he was the better man tonight,” Jack said. “It wasn’t my best performance. I don’t feel that great. It’s not easy to perform at this age. I’ve had a great career.”
Mikaelian, 35, meanwhile, may be headed to either a unification with IBF cruiserweight belt holder Jai Opetaia or he could turn to a lucrative date versus YouTuber Jake Paul if the cruiserweight can emerge with some credibility following his Friday bout versus two-time heavyweight champion Anthony Joshua.
Mikaelian appeared to seize the advantage early by getting the better of exchanges and remaining busier while shrugging off Jack’s best efforts.
Each fighter suffered a one-point deduction from referee Jerry Cantu, who announced his retirement after 28 years following the bout.
Mikaelian lost a point in the seventh for punching to the back of the head. Jack lost a point for punching off a break in the eighth.
The pair wound up fighting after the bell twice, leaning over the ropes and throwing heavy punches after the eighth.
Order was restored, and the fight resumed without further discipline.
By Mikaelian’s standards, his regaining the belt he owned in 2023 restored order as well.
In the co-main event, San Diego lightweight Jonny Mansour improved to 6-0 with a crisp performance against Mexico’s Marco Juarez, sweeping all six rounds on all three judges’ scorecards, 60-54.
Mansour, fighting for the first time since his mother’s death from cancer in May, flexed his skills advantage in dissecting Juarez in the early rounds and sought to inflict more power punches in the second half as his comfort increased.
He jarred Juarez with combinations in the fourth and fifth, then sealed the triumph with an impressive display to close it out.
“My family has faced some obstacles. … Rest in peace, mom. This victory’s for you,” Mansour said, winning after his cousin, Juju Ballo, impressively won earlier in the night.
Also, Brook Sibrian, of Coachella, California, won the WBC international women’s junior flyweight belt by majority decision over Los Angeles’ Gloria Munguilla, 95-95, 96-94, 97-93.
Lourdes Juarez is the full WBC titleholder at 108lbs.
The bout was a rematch of Munguilla’s January 17 unanimous decision victory over Sibrian, a brawl in Commerce, California.
The pair were relentless again, with Munguilla punching fervently and holding her ground while Sibrian relied on her footwork to respond with her own powerful combinations. An exchange to close the sixth was pure action, and made a great case for those backing two-minute rounds.
Sibrian landed two crushing rights to close the seventh.
Sibrian said she was determined to improve – and did, crediting Munguilla for a professional performance, showing how entertaining women’s boxing can be at this level.
Julius Ballo, a popular fighter on social media, improved to 2-0 with a unanimous decision victory over replacement opponent Juan Centeno, 10-26-4, of Nicaragua.
San Diego’s Ballo, with nearly two million Instagram followers, dropped Centeno with a left-handed body shot in the fourth after steadily increasing his punishment thanks to the jab and faster hands.
Ballo won by scores of 60-53 on all three scorecards and said he expects to fight next on the Shakur Stevenson-Teofimo Lopez card January 31 in New York.
“This is just the beginning, man,” Ballo said.
Another popular social-media figure, outdoorsman Tristan Hamm, was finished by a punishing right-left combination from Robert Daniels Jnr, 9-2 (8 KOs), ending the bout 2 minutes and 24 seconds into the first, after Daniels had earlier knocked down Hamm.
“I decided to open it up again, figuring he couldn’t take it,” Daniels said.
Said Hamm: “He’s exceptional.”
In the pay-per-view opener, junior featherweights Chantal Sumrall and Hayley Jordan staged a rematch following Sumrall’s unanimous decision victory October 10 in nearby Commerce, California.
In this one, Jordan’s activity and ability to land the harder blows paced her to the victory in her second pro bout by scores of 39-37, 40-36, 40-36.
“I expected nothing less of myself. … I was ready for this,” Jordan said.
Lance Pugmire is BoxingScene’s senior U.S. writer and an assistant producer for ProBox TV. Pugmire has covered boxing since the early 2000s, first at the Los Angeles Times and then at The Athletic and USA Today. He won the Boxing Writers’ Association of America’s Nat Fleischer Award in 2022 for career excellence.
