Videotron Centre in Quebec City, Canada - Jason “Mayhem” Moloney (27-2, 19 KOs) made the first defense of his title and retained his WBO bantamweight world title with a twelve round majority decision over Saul Sanchez (20-3, 12 KOs) in a back-and-forth tussle in which the Australian’s versatility made the difference. 

One judge scored the fight a draw with a 114-114 tally, which was overruled by two scores of 116-112.

Sanchez was aggressive from the start, but by round three, Moloney began to stand his ground and land on the inside. A headbutt caused a cut above Moloney’s right eye, but he was unfazed going into rounds four and five, where he worked the body and corralled Sanchez against the ropes.

Sanchez returned fire in the sixth and seventh with one-twos and right uppercuts, but not without quick responses from Moloney. The two then went back and forth for the rest of the slugfest, with both landing enough to make each round close.

Moloney swept the final two rounds on two of the judges' cards to pull away.

There was a big shower of boos when Moloney was announced as the winner, but the Aussie boxer believes he did enough in the second half to win the contest,

Moloney said, "Saul Sanchez is a warrior. I am proud to be the WBO bantamweight champion, and I was going to do whatever it took to keep my title.

"The era of Mayhem is only beginning. And the fans here in Quebec City were incredible. I felt like I did enough in the later rounds to retain my title.

"I’d love to defend my world title ‘Down Under’ in front of my Australian fans."