Cristobal Lorente edged a split decision win over Nathaniel Collins in a WBC featherweight eliminator today in Glasgow, with the Spaniard going on the road to take two of three cards from the hometown hero.
Lorente (21-0-3, 8 KO) battled back from a knockdown in round six, and did quite well at that, arguably winning the rest of that round quite clearly.
Judges had the fight with two cards for Lorente, 30, on scores of 115-112, with the third judging scoring it 116-111 for Collins (17-1-1, 8 KO), who
loses a rematch he obviously desperately wanted to win.
What’s next for Cristobal Lorente?
The victory gave Lorente the WBC’s “silver” title, which is basically a rankings trinket, and as mentioned, the fight was an eliminator.
Bruce “Shu Shu” Carrington (17-0, 10 KO) holds the WBC featherweight title at the moment, having taken the vacant belt with a win over Carlos Castro on January 31. Top Rank and Carrington could well see the Spaniard as a viable next opponent and the “right” sort of step for the 29-year-old champ. Lorente is a southpaw, he’s tough, he can be tricky to fight, and he’s a proven tough out at European level, though he hasn’t yet fought at true world level. Then again, neither has Carrington, despite the world title.
The WBC could order the Lorente fight next, particularly if they know Top Rank are willing to make that deal, but this stuff doesn’t always come together right away, either. There’s often a lot more political wrangling to be figured out than simply “following the rules,” which all have so many loopholes and technicalities that there’s plenty of wiggle room when needed.
Undercard highlights
Sam Gilley def. Aston Brown via TKO in Round 5
Big win for Gilley (19-2-1, 10 KO) in a move to middleweight, where he was giving up some clear size to Brown (9-1, 5 KO), who has been trying to get his once-abandoned boxing career back on track at age 35, and came here to fight, but Gilley was just too sharp, too quick, too accurate. Gilley was the better fighter in the ring, and it kept adding up until he scored a knockdown in the fifth, which pretty much signaled the end.
Royston Barney Smith def. Conor McIntosh via TKO in Round 2
Barney-Smith (16-0-1, 8 KO) looked terrific here, winning the vacant British and Commonwealth super featherweight titles with three second round knockdowns of the tough but overmatched McIntosh (10-3, 1 KO). There’s talk now of Barney-Smith, 22, possibly facing Ryan Garner soon. Garner has business to take care of on June 20 against Michael Magnesi in a WBC interim title fight, but if he gets through it, that could be a real test for RBS this year.
John Joe Carrigan def. Harley Hodgetts via KO in Round 1
Carrigan, 18, is a tremendous young prospect, now 3-0 (3 KO) as a pro. This was really more Hodgetts, 31, hurting his knee than it was an actual “huge shot” knockout, so we didn’t learn anything new about JJC, but the kid can fight and should be on your radar.
Dylan Arbuckle def. Nico Leivars via TKO after Round 4
Leivars (7-1-1, 3 KO) had to be withdrawn from this because his left eye was fully shut, an absolute mess. That’s a tough way to lose, because he was winning this fight, and it was a good fight, and the British super bantamweight title was on the line. So Arbuckle (10-0, 3 KO) is the champ now, and we could see these two go again by the end of the year with that belt on the line once more.
