Anthony Cacace fended off another veteran opponent Saturday night to extend his winning streak.
Cacace was the busier, more effective fighter for much of his 12-round, 130-pound bout with Damian Wrzesinski, which Cacace won by unanimous decision on the Luis Alberto Lopez-Michael Conlan undercard at The SSE Arena in Cacace’s hometown of Belfast. Judges Michael Fitzgerald (116-112), Jean-Robert Laine (117-111) and Terry O’Connor (118-111) all scored their fight for Cacace, who defended his IBO junior lightweight title.
The 34-year-old Cacace (21-1, 7 KOs) has won six straight fights since Martin Ward beat him unanimously on points in their 12-rounder in July 2015. Cacace also ended the four-fight winning streak of Poland’s Wrzesinski (26-3-2, 7 KOs).
Cacace maintained his obvious lead during the 11th and 12th rounds by landing punches to Wrzesinski’s head and body, but it clear that they would go the distance because neither fighter could hurt his opponent. Wrzesinski, meanwhile, had trouble catching Cacace with flush punches because Cacace slipped his shots and sometimes moved out of Wrzesinski’s punching range.
Cacace couldn’t hurt Wrzesinski during the 10th round, but he consistently connected with head and body punches that won it for him.
Wrzesinski wanted to come forward during the ninth round, but an active, accurate Cacace continued catching him with head and body shots. Cacace clearly had built a lead by that point in their fight.
Cacace sneakily landed a left hand from a southpaw stance with approximately 45 seconds remaining in the eighth round.
A right-left combination by Cacace backed up Wrzesinski with just over 1:20 to go in the seventh round. Cacace caught Wrzesinski with a right hand that eventually made him clinch toward the end of the sixth round.
Cacace got good extension on a right hand that connected with about five seconds on the clock in the fifth round. Wrzesinski’s right hand landed a few seconds after the midway mark of the fifth round.
Wrzesinski also suffered a cut along his left eyelid during the fifth round.
Cacace backed Wrzesinski into the ropes with just over 30 seconds to go in the fourth round and unloaded right hands. Wrzesinski landed four punches to Cacace’s body within a five-second span with just over a minute to go in the fourth round.
Cacace landed a right hand about 40 seconds into the second round. Wrzesinski came out aggressively and landed two right hands very early in the second round.
Wrzesinski caught Cacace with a left hook with just under 10 seconds to go in the first round. Cacace connected with a right hand a few seconds before the halfway point of the first round and another clean right later in those opening three minutes.
In the first bout BT Sport 2 televised and ESPN+ streamed Saturday, unbeaten Dublin native Pierce O’Leary remained unbeaten by stopping Spain’s Alin Florin Ciorceri in the first round of a 10-round junior welterweight bout.
A left hook by O’Leary knocked Ciorceri flat on his back just 46 seconds into their fight. Ciorceri got up quickly, but he was badly hurt.
O’Leary pounced on him and landed several more power punches, including a right uppercut, that made referee Victor Loughlin come between them to halt the action. The official time of the stoppage was 1:11 of the first round.
O’Leary improved to 12-0 and recorded his seventh knockout. Ciorceri (17-4, 7 KOs) lost by technical knockout for the second time in his six-year, 21-fight pro career.
Keith Idec is a senior writer/columnist for BoxingScene.com. He can be reached on Twitter @Idecboxing.