UNBEATEN YONNHY PEREZ WINS IBF BANTAMWEIGHT TITLE

UNBEATEN YONNHY PEREZ WINS IBF BANTAMWEIGHT TITLE
WITH EXCITING 12-ROUND DECISION OVER KING KONG AGBEKO

LAS VEGAS (Oct. 31, 2009) – In a "Halloween Thrilla" main event that lived up to its billing, undefeated Yonnhy Perez registered an upset 12-round unanimous decision over defending champion Joseph King Kong Agbeko to capture the International Boxing Federation (IBF) bantamweight title Saturday on SHOWTIME®.

The non-stop action fight between Perez (20-0, 14 KOs) of Santa Fe Springs, Calif., by way of Colombia, and Agbeko (27-2, 22 KOs) of Bronx, N.Y., via Accra, Ghana, was a spirited slugfest that featured numerous exchanges from start to finish.

During the telecast, SHOWTIME blow-by-blow announcer Steve Albert said, "In 22 years of calling boxing, I don’t think I have ever called a fight with this many punches thrown." Added color commentator Al Bernstein: "And many big shots. Both of these men are good punchers landing big."

Perez, the WBC No. 1 contender going in, scored a disputed knockdown in the 10th round en route to winning by the scores of 117-110 twice and 116-111.
"The fight went almost exactly how I planned," said an ecstatic Perez afterward. "I knew I was winning the rounds and I deserved to get the victory. I trained to throw a lot of punches. I know Agbeko likes to throw a lot of punches, so I knew I had to be better conditioned. All the hard work and preparation paid off. This is a dream come true. (On the knockdown) I don’t think he was in good shape. I think he went down to catch his breath. I felt I was more consistent, more active and I pressed the fight throughout."

A clearly disappointed Agbeko said, "He head butted me in round 10. I don’t think that was fair. The (television) replay clearly shows what happened. I was fighting well to that point. I thought I was winning the fight".

"Perez seemed energized after being awarded the knockdown and I was never the same after his head hit mine. We will never know what would have happened had there not been a head butt."

Steve Albert called the action with Al Bernstein serving as color commentator and Jim Gray as ringside reporter. The producer of Saturday’s telecast was Ray Smaltz with Bob Dunphy directing. The executive producer of SHOWTIME Sports is David Dinkins, Jr.

Saturday’s bouts will re-air as follows:

DAY: Wednesday, Nov. 4, at 11 p.m. ET/PT
CHANNEL: SHOWTIME 2

The SHOWTIME CHAMPIONSHIP BOXING telecast also will be available On Demand beginning Tuesday, Nov. 3, and running through Nov. 30.