Angelo Leo captures WBO belt in Showtime Saturday night return

Showtime premium cable in the U.S. and Premier Boxing Champions both returned Saturday night with their first fight card in over four months due the Covid-19 pandemic. And, in their reshuffled main event, New Mexico’s Angelo Leo scored a lopsided 12 round decision over fellow young, unbeaten Tremaine Williams to earn the WBO Jr. Featherweight crown.

Leo looking punch perfect heading into Round 10 ? #SHOBoxingReturns pic.twitter.com/wznLt0h5Fs

— SHOWTIME Boxing (@ShowtimeBoxing) August 2, 2020

The judges scored the fight: 117-111, and the other two 118-110 for the new champ.

The now 20-0, Leo was in control much of the way, as the bigger puncher, who used a swarming style to score with straight right hands and hard left hooks, frequently. Leo also successfully went to the body scoring effectively, throughout the bout.

He figured out Williams’ southpaw stance fairly early by using straight rights to score first, and Williams, who was shorter with less reach, struggled to get in range as the rounds continued.

Williams, who only learned he would would switch to the main event on Wednesday was outclassed for much of this one. Leo moved to Las Vegas several years ago to train with Floyd Mayweather Jr. and eventually, Mayweather promotions began to run his career a couple of years ago.

Williams, now 19-1, was subbing for unbeaten WBO #1 ranked Jr. Featherweight contender Stephen Fulton, who tested positive for Coronavirus on Wednesday and was removed from the title shot with Leo.

The belt became available, when former champ Emanuel Navarrete vacated it officially two weeks ago, but is has been known for two months that Navarrete will continue to fight at Featherweight for the foreseeable future.

Earlier in the night in the co-feature, fellow unbeaten 122 pounder Ra’eese Aleem scored a decisive 10th round TKO over Marcus Bates. Aleem, who was to have fought Williams in the co-feature until the switch, made a statement with his performance that he would love a shot at the now WBO Junior Featherweight champ, Leo.

Fulton also told Showtime post-fight that although he’s battling symptoms and still recovering from Covid 19 this week, he wants to try to fight Leo later this Fall. The WBO has mandated that Fulton get that shot within the next six months.

Showtime and PBC held the first of a series of fight cards that will be at the Mohegan Sun Casino in Connecticut without fans. The next scheduled show in their series together will feature WBC Super Middleweight title holder David Benavidez defending his championship on August 15th.