Fast Results from the Bubble: Plania Upsets Greer; Santillan Nips DeMarco

ESPN was back at the MGM Grand bubble tonight for the third offering of their semi-weekly summer series presented by Top Rank. Unheralded Mike Plania, who hails from the same hometown as Manny Pacquaio, upset Joshua Greer in the main event of a five-fight card.

Greer, from Chicago, entered the bout with a 19-fight winning streak and was ranked #1 by the WBO and #2 in the IBF in the super bantamweight division. However, he was less than impressive in his last two previous outings and it appears that his career has hit a wall.

Plania got his attention early, knocking him down with a sweeping left hook in the opening round. Another left hook, this one of the shorter, whip-saw variety, put Greer on the canvas again, this coming in the sixth frame, and at this juncture Greer had scant chance of prevailing if Plania stayed upright.

But Greer, who had been fighting off his back foot for the first seven frames, switched roles and became the aggressor to good effect. It was too little, too late, however, and the Filipino brought home the money, upping his record to 24-1 with his ninth straight win. Greer fell to 22-2-1.

Dave Moretti, Nevada’s top boxing judge (but not tonight) thought that Greer salvaged a draw with his late rally, scoring the bout 94-94. His cohorts favored Plania by 97-91 and 96-92.

Co-Feature

In what may become a regular TV practice when the sport returns to normal, the co-feature was bumped into the first fight of the evening. It matched up-and-comer Giovani Santillan against veteran Antonio DeMarco in a 10-round welterweight contest.

Santillan (26-0) kept his undefeated record intact with a 10-round majority decision (96-94, 96-94, 95-95) that surprised the TV commentators. It was a bitter pill for former WBO lightweight title-holder DeMarco (33-9-1) who seemingly did enough to win but instead suffered his sixth loss in his last eight starts.

Other Bouts

Nikoloz Sekhnashvili, a heavy-handed middleweight from the Republic of Georgia, improved to 6-0 with a one-sided victory over Detroit’s Isiah Jones (8-2) The scores were 59-55 and 60-54 twice.

In an uninteresting 6-round contest between unskilled heavyweights, Hector Perez won a unanimous decision over beefy Juan Torres. Perez improved to 7-2; Torres declined to 5-3-1.

In a welterweight contest reduced from eight to six rounds for TV purposes, Kazakhstan import Bobirzhan Mominov improved to 11-0 with a unanimous decision over Cameron Krael. Mominov had a point deducted in the last round for hitting on the break, but won by scores of 57-56 and 58-55 twice. Krael, who is always a tough out – he’s been stopped only once, that coming one with second remaining in an 8-round fight with Jamal James – fell to 17-16-3.

Photo credit: Mikey Williams for Top Rank

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