Ayala Keeps Bantamweight Title With Close Decision Over Bredahl

Paulie Ayala certainly didn’t look like the fighter of the year Saturday night.

A 17-1 favorite against Johnny Bredahl, Ayala barely hung on to defend his World Boxing Assn. bantamweight title at the Mandalay Bay Events Center in front of a crowd of 3,378, winning by majority decision.

That’s more than WBA super-bantamweight champion Nestor Garza could say. A 5-1 favorite in his title defense against Clarence “Bones” Adams, Garza lost by unanimous decision after being knocked down twice.

Ayala, named fighter of the year for 1999 by Ring magazine for his victory over Johnny Tapia to capture the title, Ayala squeaked by Bredahl, winning 116-111 on the scorecard of judge Al Siciliano and 115-113 on the card of Chuck Giampa. The third judge, Guillermo Perez, called the fight a draw at 114-114.

Ayala (30-1, 12 knockouts) put Bredahl (45-2, 23 knockouts) down in the second round with a right hand. Bredahl, caught against the ropes, maintained that he had slipped.

With Ayala dominating early in the fight, it didn’t appear as though that would be a crucial moment. But as the slippery Bredahl survived onslaught after onslaught by Ayala and scored with his own right hand, the knockdown turned out to be crucial.

Neither man showed the ability to knock the other out.

“He was moving pretty good,” Ayala said. “He was hard to catch. He was tough to fight.”

Bredahl, from Copenhagen, was so incensed by the decision that he didn’t stay around for a postfight television interview.

In the semi-main event, Adams (39-3-3, 18 knockouts), who comes from Kentucky but now makes his home in the Las Vegas area, showed his power early, putting Mexico’s Garza down with a left hook in the first round.

Garza (37-2, 29 knockouts) got into further trouble in the second round when he and Adams banged heads. Garza came out of the collision with a deep cut over his left eye, blood streaming down his face.

Initially, there was concern whether the fight could continue. But Garza’s corner men stopped the bleeding and the cut didn’t seem to be a factor as the fight wore on.

Adams’ fists certainly were. In the fifth round, he landed a great triple combination--left, right, left--to put Garza down again.

Somehow Garza got to his feet, but he never got back in the fight.

Adams stayed away from Garza in the later rounds, revealing after the fight that he thought he had broken his hand in the eighth round.

As for Garza was perplexed by the result.

“I don’t know what was wrong with me tonight,” he said. “I wasn’t the same Nestor Garza.”

Fighting on the undercard and hoping to be considered a contender for the International Boxing Federation welterweight title, expected to soon be vacated by Felix Trinidad, Oba Carr strengthened his case by beating Yory Boy Campas on an eighth-round TKO.

Carr (50-3-1, 30 knockouts) became the winner after the bell had sounded to end Round 8. Miguel Diaz, Campas’ trainer, told referee Mitch Halpern to stop the bout because the left eye of Campas (74-4, 63 knockouts) was nearly swollen shut.

Former IBF junior-bantamweight champion Danny Romero (38-3-1, 33 knockouts) beat Adarryl Johnson (11-4-2, 6 knockouts) on a fifth-round technical knockout.

Weighing 330 pounds, Eric “Butterbean” Esch scored a 19-second knockout of George Linberger to improve to 53-1-2.

And, in a four-round woman’s bout, Canadian Tracey Stevens won a unanimous decision against Nina Ahlin, an Atlanta Falcon cheerleader.