Boxing Results: Gabriela Fundora Retains Titles With TKO Over Marilyn Badillo; Jorge Perez Scores Upset Split Decision Win Against Charles Conwell

Gabriela Fundora (16-0, 8 KOs) successfully defended her IBF, WBC, and WBO world flyweight titles, knocking out previously unbeaten Marilyn Badillo Amaya (19-1-1, 3 KOs) in the seventh round on Saturday night at the Frontwave Arena in Oceanside, California.

Fundora, 23, dropped Badillo in the seventh round with a barrage of hard punches. After Badillo got back up, she decided not to continue. The fight was then officially stopped at 1:44 of the seventh by referee Rudy Barragan.

It was a one-sided fight with the 5’9″ southpaw Fundora using her height, reach, and high work rate to overwhelm the light-hitting Badillo. Fundora’s high work rate seemed to be the real problem because she kept throwing, and Badillo couldn’t keep up.

Conwell Upset

In the chief support bout, Jorge Perez (33-4, 26 KOs) pulled off a big upset, defeating previously unbeaten junior middleweight contender Charles Conwell (21-1, 16 KOs) by a 12-round split decision.

Perez’s volume punching and machine gun combinations were a pure nightmare for Conwell tonight. Charles couldn’t match the output from Perez, and the only thing he could do was maul.

Body Work Pays Off

The lanky 6’0″ Perez fought a great fight, going to the body, weakening Conwell with those shots. In response, Conwell spent much of the fight mauling Perez, holding and throwing short punches on the inside. That tactic stifled his own power and played into the hands of the better-conditioned Perez.

When there was separation, Perez fired off rapid-fire combinations to the head of Conwell. Perez would mix in double and triple hooks to the body that may have impressed the judges.

The Scores

115-113 – Perez
115-113 – Conwell
115-113 – Perez

In hindsight, Conwell may regret choosing to maul so much because he wasn’t getting his shots off with full power. The image of Conwell constantly holding gave the impression that he didn’t want to fight, and was afraid of being beaten by Perez when the action was on the outside.

Conwell was at his best in the first four rounds, as that was when he was landing hard punches and still fresh. Perez took over in the second half with his combination punching and aggressiveness. He was working harder than Conwell. The referee warned Charles for throwing rabbit punches several times in the fight. With the mauling that Conwell was doing, it was difficult for him not to land punches to the back of Perez’s head.

The final Punch Stats:

Perez: 164 of 754 punches for 22% connect
Conwell: 166 of 701 for 24%

Perez Reacts

“My team reinforced me round after round, ‘We’re winning. We’re winning.’ Thank God, we actually won,” said Jorge Perez after the fight. “My conditioning. We had a great camp. I feel that with every fight, we get better and better. I work really, really hard. I knew that if I win this fight, I could get a world title fight.

“Of course, if it’s Sebastian Fundora, he’s welcome. If it’s the other champions, they’re welcome,” said Perez when asked if he’d be interested in challenging WBC and WBO 154-lb champion Sebastian Fundora next.