OKLAHOMA CITY — Junior welterweight world titleholder Maurice Hooker was a successful road warrior again on Friday night.
Hooker, in the hometown of mandatory challenger Alex Saucedo, survived a hard knockdown in the second round and came back to stop Saucedo in the seventh of a wild action-packed fight as he retained his 140-pound belt for the first time before 4,102 at the Chesapeake Energy Arena.
Hooker won his belt on the road in Manchester, England, on June 9, when he traveled to Terry Flanagan’s hometown and won a split decision over the former lightweight titlist to claim the vacant belt.
Now Hooker, who embraced fighting on the road during the build up to the fight, is 2-0 in back-to-back world title fights in enemy territory, and this one was far more definitive than the bout in June as he stormed back to stop Saucedo, whom he used to spar with when they turned pro in 2011.
Saucedo, who grew up around the corner from the Chesapeake Energy Arena and still calls the area home, was bidding to join former 1980s lightweight world titleholder Sean O’Grady — who was ringside — as the only fighters from Oklahoma City to win a world title. But Hooker snuffed out that dream in punishing style.
There was no feeling-out process at the opening bell. Instead, they went right at each other with Hooker, who had a significant reach advantage, firing his jab and Saucedo looking to get inside and pound away. The action continued at a wild pace in the second round, but Saucedo (28-1, 18 KOs), 24, dominated. He nailed Hooker (25-0-3, 17 KOs), 29, of Dallas, with a right hand to the head and knocked him down. Hooker got up quickly, but he was hurt, and Saucedo pounded him for most of the rest of the round, including giving him a bloody nose.
After the knockdown, Saucedo twisted Hookers’ head back with a right hand and landed a hard uppercut. Hooker seemed to have shaken off the knockdown by the third round. He began to get in a groove with his long jab while also landing right hands as well as short punches as Saucedo bore in on him.
Saucedo trapped Hooker on the ropes and kept him there for most of the fifth round and let his hands fly to the head and body. Hooker was covering up, but Saucedo was finding openings and landing his punches until he mounted an offensive burst in the final few seconds of the round to knock Saucedo off balance.
Hooker had another strong round in the sixth, hammering Saucedo with many clean punches. By the time the round was over, Saucedo’s left eye was swelling and his face was marked up.
Hooker did not let up in the seventh and punished Saucedo with right hands that rocked him. One of them badly staggered Saucedo, who nearly went down but instead fell into the ropes, and referee Mark Nelson ruled it a knockdown because they held him up. But as soon as Nelson waved the fighters together again, Hooker was all over Saucedo. He lashed him with a series of punishing shots that sent him into the ropes on the other side of the ring until Nelson stopped the fight at 1 minute, 36 seconds, sending what had been an intense, raucous crowd into near silence.