Nonito Donaire beat Rafael Concepcion by unanimous decision to win an interim paper super flyweight title.  Concepcion tried to keep things entertaining, backing up Donaire through most of the fight, and lunging in and occasionally finding Donaire with a fairly effective right hook.  While Donaire Did start off by coming forward occasionally, starting around round 5, he became content to mostly circle backwards and let Concepcion come at him, popping off counters and the occasional jab to earn a close but clear victory.  The judges scored the bout 115-113, 116-112 and 117-111; Bad Left Hook's official scorecard was 116-112 in favor of Donaire.  It wasn't exactly a performance that justified Donaire being ranked ahead of guys like Paul Williams and Chad Dawson in the pound for pound ratings, and Donaire seemed to take a step back technically, failing to throw his jab in circunstances where using it may have allowed him to completely control the fight.  Word is that this is just a stop on Donaire's way to 118, where he'd like to fight Jorge Arce or Fernando Montiel, both Top Rank fighters.  Based on what I saw of Donaire last night, I'd say he'd have his hands very full with Montiel.

The strangest moment of the night came in the bout between Steven Luevano and Bernabe Concepcion.  For 6 2/3 rounds, Luevano and Concepcion put up an abominable stinker of a fight. It was basically the featherweight verson of Klitschko-Ibragimov - Luevano continually popped out range finding jabs (landing absolutely nothing) to keep Concepcion off of him, while Concepcion danced around on the outside, and maybe two of three times a round, would try to pop in and rip off a quick combo (mostly missing).  After seven rounds, the two fighters COMBINED to land 100 punches, and frankly, that seemed generous.  Finally, with about 15 seconds left in the 7th round, a fight broke out.  Concepcion lunged in and nailed Luevano, who then fired back, and the two exchanged bombs.  With about a second left in the round, Concepcion appeared to hurt Luevano with a right hook.  The bell then rang, and with Luevano looking hurt and the referee not stepping in quickly, Concepcion ripped off a 1-2 combo that knocked Luevano out.  It seemed to me that it was a bit of an acting job that Luevano stayed on the ground for 3 minutes, but it was clearly a legitimate knockdown punch.  With Luevano unable to continue, referee Jay Nady was forced to call a disqualification.  Shameful, shameful Bob Arum, after the fight, said he'd schedule a rematch "with both fighters getting a raise" in December.  Personally, I'd rather have sex with a sandpaper tube than watch those two go at it again.

Roy Jones put on a clinic against Jeff Lacy in his main event, forcing Lacy's corner to stop the fight after the 10th round.  All night, Jones was able to outquick Lacy, and much like in his fight with Omar Sheika, he actually looked a little bit like vintage Roy against a MUCH slower and pretty well shot opponent.  Next up, Jones will be facing Danny Green, who won a minor cruiserweight paper title on the undercard, in Australia for that cruiserweight title.  Green certainly has the ability to give Jones his closest fight in a long time, and if Jones beats Green, it would be his best win since 2003.

Other results after the jump.

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via www.cyberboxingzone.com

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Round-by-round coverage and scoring starts tonight at 9pm ET.

 As many of you may know, Scott is getting married this weekend, meaning I'll be manning the helm on Saturday night.  Unfortunately, it's one of the two or three days a year that there are two different pay per view cards going on at the same time.  Rather than just picking one, let's try a little bit of democratic process to see which card you'd rather I provide round by round coverage for.  Of course, if I do one and you get the other, then feel free to provide your own round by round in the thread.  Here are the options:

Pinoy Power II - Nonito Donaire vs. Rafael Concepcion, vacant junior bantamweight title; Steven Luevano vs. Bernabe Concepcion, featherweight title; Mark Melligen vs. Michel Rosales, junior welterweights; Anthony Peterson vs. Luis Arceo, lightweights

Hook City - Roy Jones Jr. vs. Jeff Lacy, light heavyweights; Danny Green vs. Julio Cesar Dominguez, light heavyweights; BJ Flores vs. Epifanio Mendoza, cruiserweights; Jason Litzau vs. Verquan Kimbrough, lightweights

After talks with Hugo Cazares fell through, Nonito Donaire will now face Rafael Concepcion in his August 15 move to the junior bantamweight division. (via www.notifight.com)

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Nonito Donaire's August 15 pay-per-view fight with former 108-pound champion Hugo Cazares has fallen through, and Donaire will now face Rafael Concepcion that night in Las Vegas. San Francisco Examiner boxing writer Colin Seymour says that talks with both Cazares and Jose Lopez failed, and that promoter Bob Arum says Concecpion was "the best [they] could do."

Concecpcion (13-3-1, 8 KO) held the interim WBA title at 115 pounds last year after upsetting Pinoy prospect AJ Banal with a 10th round knockout in July, then less than two months later went to Mexico to defend against Jorge Arce, a hell of a tough war that Arce won when Concepcion retired after nine rounds of back-and-forth slugging.

He's better than his record, though Nonito Donaire has already noted that he is shorter than he expected. Donaire, moving up from 112 pounds, is listed at 5'6", while Concepcion is listed at 5'4" and that might be a bit of an overstatement. Concepcion also hasn't made 115 pounds since the Arce fight, though he's fought twice since then. He weighed 127 pounds for a fight with a tomato can in November, and 120 for a fight against Kermin Guardi in February.

The fight has also stirred up some folks in boxing, notably handlers of Concepcion's planned opponent for September 6, up-and-coming Filipino Drian Francisco (17-0-1, 13 KO). Concepcion opted to breach his contract and take the Donaire fight, but it sounds like Top Rank is willing to reimburse everyone involved with that card for money spent promoting the fight, and for airfare to and from the Philippines as well. Donaire being a fellow Filipino also helped, according to the event's managers.

Donaire-Concepcion is a pretty safe bet for a Donaire win, a fairly easy move up to 115, but not a lot different than the proposed Donaire-Cazares bout, which I found mildly interesting but also sort of transparent. Cazares really doesn't belong at the weight, and power, speed and youth were probably all on Donaire's side. Against Concepcion, he's taking on a guy who can take some punishment, but I also think Donaire will get him out of there in the middle rounds. Concepcion isn't a big banger and isn't particularly fast, so I expect him to really struggle to keep up with Donaire offensively and defensively.