In Saturday’s main event televised live on Showtime from Mohegan Sun Arena in Uncasville, Connecticut, former WBC super middleweight champion David Benavidez (23-0, 20 KOs), the 23-year-old phenom from Phoenix, Arizona, kept his unbeaten streak alive by stopping Roamer Alexis Angulo (26-2, 22 KOs), the 36-year-old veteran from Miami via El Bordo, Colombia, at the end of round 10 of a scheduled 12.

 

Benavidez fought exceptionally well considering the distractions from Friday’s weigh-in.

 

“I rate myself a solid eight,” he said of his performance. “I could have done some stuff better, but overall it was a great performance. I didn’t want to go too fast and leave myself exposed for some big shots. He’s a heavy puncher. But like I said, I like to do the stuff that nobody has ever done. Nobody has ever stopped him and I’m pretty sure nobody is ever going to make him look like that again. I demolished him from round one to round 10.”

 

The 13-year age difference was a mountain too high for Angulo to climb, especially with Benavidez perched near the summit. He had every advantage going in and landed 56 percent of his power punches.

 

Composed both before and after the fight, his mea culpa sounded sincere.

 

“Everything everyone said about me is true,” Benavidez said. “I should be a professional and come in on weight, but this time I couldn’t do it. It’s my first time not making weight in eight years of being a professional.”

 

Benavidez will have another title in no time. There are plenty of titleholders he has yet to tangle with.

 

“I really have to talk to my promoter to see what’s next,” he said. “I’ll fight anybody to get back to the spot I was. You could see by this performance tonight, I could put on a great performance against anybody and people will pay to see that. I’m probably going to go right back into training camp to make sure I don’t miss weight.”

 

In other action, Rolando “Rolly” Romero (12-0, 10 KOs) won the interim WBA lightweight title with a controversial decision over previously unbeaten Jackson Maríñez (19-1, 7 KOs). The scores were unanimous, 115-113, 116-112 and 118-110 in favor of Romero.

 

“That was pure robbery,” said Maríñez. “I won the fight. I out-jabbed, out-boxed him. You could tell he didn’t think he won the fight right afterwards. It’s a robbery.”

 

The opening fight of the night featured heavyweight contender Otto Wallin (21-1, 14 KOs), his first fight since slicing and dicing Tyson Fury a year ago, retired Travis Kauffman (32-4, 23 KOs) at 2:32 of the fifth round when the veteran from Reading, Pennsylvania, re-tore his left labrum and could no longer fight.

 

“In the first round I hurt it,” Kauffman said. “I felt it, but then it went away and I thought maybe it’s just my mind and it went away. Then in the fifth round I heard it and that was it. It was torn again.”

 

Kauffman has had enough and is calling it quits.

 

“I’m done,” he said. “I’m retiring. I have kids. I’ve been doing this a long time.”

 

He had a credible career and never gave less than his all, but the night belonged to Otto Wallin.

 

“I was breaking him down and hitting him with good clean shots. I had a lot left,” the big Swedish southpaw said. “Too bad he hurt his shoulder in the end.”