Mayol gets back on track, defeats Gallo

LAS VEGAS—Rodel Mayol showed flashes of his old brilliance in beating Mexican Javier Gallo by majority decision in the non-televised undercard of the Manny Pacquiao-Shane Mosley showdown here Saturday.

The former World Boxing Council light flyweight champion dominated most of the rounds and got the nod of judges Jerry Roth and Lisa Giampa, who had similar 98-92 scores.

Third judge CJ Ross had it a 95-95 draw.

With his second straight win in the flyweight division, Mayol improved to 28-5-2 with 21 knockouts.

In his first fight in the 112 lb class, Mayol posted a seventh round stoppage of Pompetch Twin Gym last November at the Ynares Gym in Pasig City.

Gallo, from Tijuana, dropped to 17-4-1 with nine knockouts.

With his snappy jabs, Mayol controlled rounds third to fifth, where he forced Gallo to backpedal with a left hook to the face.

Both boxers seem to tire out a bit in the ninth as they repeatedly clung to each other.

Mayol, who was an inch taller at 5-foot-4, landed a hard left that shook Gallo early in the 10th, but the Mexican quickly recovered to last the distance.

Buboy Fernandez and Nonoy Neri, Pacquiao’s Filipino trainers, worked the corner of Mayol, who is now based in Los Angeles.

Freddie Roach is the designated trainer of Mayol, who took the WBC title from Edgar Sosa via a second round technical knockout in 2009, but later yielded it to Omar Nino Romero by unanimous decision in Mexico.

At 29, Mayol feels he can still earn another crack at a world title.