Fast Finish Helps Zaragoza Defeat Banke

The heart of a champion was required equipment to beat Paul Banke Thursday night, and that’s exactly what Daniel Zaragoza showed in winning a brutal title fight at the Forum.

Zaragoza, bleeding from numerous cuts and knocked down in the ninth round, fought back in the final three rounds and won a split decision over the ever-charging Banke. Zaragoza thus retained his World Boxing Council super-bantamweight championship, although at the finish of the 12-round bout he looked like anything but a winner.

Nonetheless, the 31-year-old Mexico City fighter grinned and paid tribute to his opponent after the fight, which drew a crowd of 4,591.

“I knew I won the fight, but with Banke’s style and all those people (the pro-Banke crowd) behind him, I wasn’t sure,” he said. “A rematch? I don’t care. I don’t have much time (in boxing), I’ll fight anyone.

“Banke is very fast and very strong, but Jeff Fenech is still the toughest man I’ve fought.”

Many scored the bout for Zaragoza, but not Mexican judge Guillermo Ayon, who scored it for Banke, 115-113. Judges Newton Campos of Brazil and Chuck Giampa of Nevada both had Zaragoza, 116-110 and 117-110.

For Banke, 24, whose record is 16-4, the defeat was a temporary detour in his rapid development as a world-class bantamweight in 1988 and ’89. He’d won $100,000 in 1988 by winning the Forum’s super-bantamweight tournament, then knocked out Ramiro Adames last January.

In losing, he earned $15,000. Zaragoza made $45,000.

The flatfooted, free-swinging Banke never really solved the style and the longer reach of the more experienced champion, who is 37-4-1.

Banke, who trailed throughout on most cards, had his best round in the ninth, the only time in the fight when he seemed to be in command. Thirty seconds into the round, he caught Zaragoza on the ropes with a straight right and a left hook to the head that put the champion on the floor.

Banke, from Quail Valley, poured it on. He chased Zaragoza for the rest of the round, but he never really caught Zaragoza again with the punch he needed.

After the ninth, when it looked as if Zaragoza might fold, and Banke fans were on their feet chanting, BANK-EE, the champion managed to take command. Banke was raking him with hard hooks to the head in the 10th, when Zaragoza suddenly summoned a fresh supply of energy.

At the end of the 10th, he rocked Banke with a left-right combination. And he came out for the 11th and 12th amazingly fresh and won both rounds.

Afterward, Banke pointed to the assorted lumps on his face.

“Look at my face,” he said. “He’s dangerous. It shows. He’s a good fighter, a good champion. I wasn’t busy enough. I thought I won, but the best man won.”

On the undercard, in an opening-round bout of the Forum’s super-featherweight tournament, Robert Byrd of Dallas advanced with a one-round knockout of Javier Pichardo of Mexico City. Byrd (18-2) drilled Pichardo (25-6) with a short right hand to the gut and Pichardo collapsed to his knees, doubled up, and was counted out.