Contributor: Nolan Howell
Keith Thurman and Jaime Munguia went into Saturday night as heavy favorites to retain their titles against Josesito Lopez and Takeshi Inoue respectively and both managed to come out on top.
Thurman had more trouble in the PBC on Fox main event for the WBA Super welterweight title, as he clearly outboxed Lopez early with a knockdown in the second round. Lopez started walking Thurman down and keeping him near the ropes and corners, culminating in a seventh round where he rocked Thurman and had him shaking all over the ring. Thurman managed to settle down after, but was still troubled by the confident and pressuring Lopez and dropped a few rounds down the stretch. Thurman still managed a majority decision victory with scores of 113-113, 115-111, and 117-109 on the cards.
Munguia had an easier time negating his brawler opponent on DAZN, earning 120-108, 120-108, and 119-109 scores on the cards as he was able to 
pick his punches to stop the flurrying Inoue from landing anything troubling throughout. The closer fight came in the DAZN undercard, with Can Xu getting a controversial decision win in the WBA featherweight title fight against Jesus Rojas. Xu got the win 118-110, 117-111, and 116-112 on the cards, which didn’t really show just how close it was in bell-to-bell action.
On the FOX card, Tugstsogt Nyambayar picked up the IBO featherweight title in a close decision of 114-113, 115-112, and 116-111 over Claudio Marrero and heavyweight Adam Kownacki clobbered Gerald Washington to a second-round TKO to establish himself as an option among the “best of the rest” outside of the logjam at the top of the division.
-Nolan can be reached @uwuinnitm8 .
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