MICHEL ROSALES W10 (split) MARK MELLIGEN

RINGSIDE REPORT: Now we know that Mark Melligen isn’t the next Filipino superetsar. Melligen was very disappointing as he wilted down the stretch to be outpointed by Michel Rosales in their 10-round welterweight bout at the Mandalay Bay's House of Blues the night before the Pacquiao-Cotto superfight.  It was the sort of fight that was open to interpretation, with one judge marking Melligen ahead by 98-92 while the other two judges saw Rosales up by 96-94. In the consensus scoring (where all three, or two of three, judges agree on which boxer won the round) the score came out to 95-95, which was  how I had it from ringside. For me, this was an evenly balanced fight after eight rounds but Rosales came out strongly in the ninth and 10th, backing up a tiring Melligen and hurting him to the body.

I am afraid to say I noticed some “give” in Melligen. He was OK when he was able to slot in one-twos from out of his southpaw stance, and he had Rosales missing quite wildly at times, but the 26-year-old from Los Mochis just kept pressing forward, looking the bigger, stronger, tougher man, and he built up points with clusters of  punches that included hooks and uppercuts on the inside.

It was Rosales’s body punches that won it for him, though. At times he was almost caving in Melligen, who was moving up from junior welter and could never hurt the more battle-tested Mexican fighter. I had expected more from Melligen, who was simply fighting in spurts and looking to survive towards the end.