Boxing Roundup : Starling Easily Retains WBC Title

World Boxing Council welterweight champion Marlon Starling won a unanimous, 12-round decision over the WBC’s top-ranked contender, Yungkil Chung of South Korea, Friday night at Hartford, Conn.

Starling, fighting in his hometown for the first time since winning the title in February, was in command from start to finish.

He peppered Chung with jabs to the head in almost every round, and kept the challenger off balance with quick counterpunches.

But Chung was never knocked down, and was still throwing punches when the final bell sounded.

Two judges had Starling winning 11 of the 12 rounds.

Starling (45-5-1) was defending the title for the first time. He lost his World Boxing Assn. welterweight title last July when he was knocked out by Colombia’s Thomas Molinares after the bell sounded ending the sixth round. The fight was later changed to a no decision, but Starling didn’t get the title back.

Starling then won the WBC title from Lloyd Honeyghan in February with a ninth-round knockout.

Chung (27-5-2) lost to Honeyghan on the same night that Starling lost to Molinares. But Chung appealed the decision, saying he was hit by a low blow, and the WBC allowed him to keep his spot as the ranking contender.

Olympic heavyweight silver medalist Riddick Bowe won his seventh consecutive fight, knocking out Tony Hayes of High Point, N.C., 1:21 into their scheduled six-round fight in New York.

Bowe, 227, used a right to the body to put down Hayes, 230. Hayes couldn’t get up and his record fell to 4-4.

The New York debut for the Brooklyn native was a nonprofit show. Bowe fought for nothing.

Rock Newman, Bowe’s manager, said he could not make a deal with Madison Square Garden Boxing, which runs many club shows in the New York area. So he approached Gleason’s Gym, which counts on fighters on its cards to sell tickets.

“I told them rather than sell tickets, we’ll fight for nothing,” Newman said.

“I just want to fight in New York,” Bowe, 21, said. “Right now the money aspect doesn’t mean anything. The money will come in the future.”