Unbeaten Miguel Cotto retained his World Boxing Association welterweight crown before hometown supporters on Saturday when the trainer for Germany's Oktay Urkal waved a towel in surrender.
The fight was halted 61 seconds into the 11th round after Urkal's trainer, Uli Wegner, waved the white towel. Cotto led on all three cards when the fight was stopped.
"I was confused by the trainer for my opponent. I guess he believed he had better stop the fight," Cotto said.
PHOTO: AP
Urkal instigated several head butts, the last of which came just before Wegner surrendered.
"I don't know if it was purposeful or not but he did butt me in the head. It bothered me a lot in the fight," Cotto said. "I'm going to take care of my cut, going to the hospital from here."
Cotto improved to 29-0 with his 24th early stoppage and set up a profitable June 9 title defense at New York's Madison Square Garden against American Zab Judah, a former world champion.
Urkal's trainer Wegner was upset at what he considered improper body blows by Cotto.
"Cotto took the victory," Wegner said. "He was doing punches that were not allowed and the referee let it slide. He was totally red and blue in the back. My fighter didn't have a chance with this referee in the ring."
This was Cotto's first defense of the vacant title he won last December.
Meanwhile in Los Angeles Vic Darchinyan stopped Mexico's Victor Burgos by technical knockout in the 12th and final round on Saturday to remain unbeaten and retain his International Boxing Federation flyweight world title.
The Armenian-born Australian had dominated the bout, and Burgos withstood a storm of punishing blows until referee Jon Schorle called a halt when the Mexican was again staggered at 1:27 of the 12th round.
After going to his corner and slumping wearily to his stool, the battered Burgos was taken from the ring on a stretcher and sent to hospital.
The injuries to Burgos appeared to be potentially more serious.
"He was going a little bit in and out of consciousness," ringside doctor Marc Wallace said. "He was never fully out, but he wasn't responding properly."
Wallace said that otherwise Burgos's vital signs were all right, but doctors were concerned about the number of blows to the head he absorbed.
Darchinyan improved to 28-0 with 22 knockouts and made his seventh defense of the title he won in December 2004 with a knockout of Colombian Irene Pacheco.
"For this fight I was prepared very good, I was ready to knock him out from the first round," said Darchinyan, who sent Burgos to one knee in the second with a body blow. "I give him good credit, he's very tough. I hope he's OK."
On the same card, Mexico's Rafael Marquez survived an early knockdown to stop compatriot Israel Vazquez in seven rounds and seize the World Boxing Council super bantamweight title.
Moving up in weight class after seven successful defenses of his bantamweight title, Marquez improved to 37-3 with 33 knockouts.
Vazquez, who fell to 41-4, knocked down the challenger with a left hook in the third. But it was Marquez who got the better of their often explosive exchanges in the next three rounds.
Vazquez, 29, rebounded in the seventh, but didn't answer the bell for the eighth because of difficulty breathing caused by a broken nose.
Elsewhere, Indonesia's boxing hero Chris "The Dragon" John beat Jose Rojas on points on Saturday to retain his featherweight title in front of baying home fans in Jakarta.
The undefeated John, who holds the World Boxing Association version of the title, forced Venezuela's Rojas to take two counts in the first half of the fight.
The 27-year-old champion backed up Rojas in later rounds, culminating in a haymaking 12th when the exhausted Venezuelan appeared almost out on his feet, but somehow survived.
The judges scored the 57kg contest 118-108, 117-107, 116-110.
John, who thanked fans for their support after the bout, is among Indonesia's most popular sportsmen. His fights are said to draw a domestic television audience running into millions.
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