Alberto Puello retains WBC title with split decision over Sandor Martin

Alberto Puello narrowly kept his WBC belt by beating Sandor Martin by split decision.

Alberto Puello took a split decision victory over Sandor Martin on the Tank vs Roach pay-per-view undercard, retaining his WBC super lightweight championship with the win.

Puello won two cards on scores of 115-113 and 116-112, with Martin taking the third, 115-113. Bad Left Hook unofficially scored the fight 114-114 and 115-113 Martin on two cards.

Puello (24-0, 10 KO) certainly wasn’t the beneficiary of a robbery here, but this fight absolutely could have gone the other way, as Martin (42-4, 15 KO) returned from a 442-day layoff in his boxing career to out-land the defending titlist by a bit overall, with plenty of argument that he’d nicked the fight.

CompuBox saw Martin landing 162 of 441 (37%) total punches, and 131 of 321 (41%) power punches, where he had a distinct edge. Puello was credited with landing 150 of 526 (29%) total punches, and 83 of 247 (34%) power shots, while holding a 67-to-31 edge in jabs landed.

But scoring it round-to-round, it was maybe even closer than those numbers would indicate. It was also a more entertaining affair than some might have feared, as neither man is exactly known for an action style, but their skill sets and approaches meshed nicely to make for a highly watchable, crafty fight between smart veterans.

The loss will be tough for Spain’s Martin, 31, to swallow, just as his controversial defeat against Teofimo Lopez was in late 2022, and for Puello, 30, it’s a second straight split decision victory. There was really very little separating these two tonight.

How did you score Puello vs Martin?