Scorecard: Lara defends 154-pound title in lackluster win

— -- A roundup of the past week's notable boxing results from around the world:

Saturday at Las Vegas

Erislandy Lara W12 Vanes Martirosyan
Retains a junior middleweight title
Scores: 116-111 (twice), 115-112
Records: Lara (23-2-2, 13 KOs); Martirosyan (36-3-1, 21 KOs)

Rafael's remarks: From the moment this rematch was unfortunately made, expectations were for a bad, boring fight -- just like their first miserable encounter in a 2012 world title eliminator that ended, fittingly, in a technical draw after Martirosyan sustained a bad cut over his left eye in the ninth round and was unable to continue.

The sequel, headlining a Showtime tripleheader of 154-pound world title bouts, was nearly as bad the first fights because, as we learned four years ago, the styles of Lara, 33, the former Cuban amateur standout who defected and fights out of Houston, and Martirosyan, 30, the 2004 U.S. Olympian from Glendale, California, mesh about as well as coffee and garlic. It was another awful, albeit competitive fight Lara won on his slicker moves and Martirosyan's maddening inability to let his hands go when there were openings.

Head-butts were once again a factor and they began early when Lara wound up with swelling around his left eye from one in the second round. Lara, who retained his belt for the fourth time, ran less than he has in other fights but still moves a bit too much to make an enjoyable fight. When he did fight, he landed some good combinations and straight left hands out of his southpaw stance. Martirosyan's left hook and uppercut worked well (but he didn't throw enough of them) and he had a consistent and effective body attack. One of Martirosyan's body shots landed on Lara's belt line in the 11th round and referee Vic Drakulich inserted himself in the fight for no good reason and took a point that he shouldn't have from Martirosyan. Fortunately, it turned out not to impact the final result -- another victory for Lara in yet another awful fight.

Jermall Charlo W12 Austin Trout
Retains a junior middleweight title
Scores: 116-112 (twice), 115-113
Records: Charlo (24-0, 18 KOs); Trout (30-3, 17 KOs) 

Rafael's remarks: Charlo won his world title in September by third-round knockout of Cornelius "K9" Bundrage and defended it via fourth-round KO against "Silky" Wilky Campfort in November. But they are not on the same level as former titleholder Trout, 30, of Las Cruces, New Mexico, who owns a win against future Hall of Famer Miguel Cotto and came very close to beating Canelo Alvarez. So, Trout, who held a title from 2011 to 2013, represented Charlo's most significant opponent so far and Charlo handled the assignment quite well as he retained his belt for the second time in a competitive bout.

By winning, Houston's Charlo, who celebrated his 26th birthday with identical twin brother Jermell Charlo three days before the fight, helped put them in the boxing record book. With Jermell knocking out John Jackson in the eighth round to win a vacant title in the preceding bout, they became the first twins to hold world titles at the same time in the same weight division.

Trout is a good fighter and he gave Charlo problems, especially down the stretch, but Charlo did more than enough to warrant the decision win against the first southpaw he had ever faced. He rode his right hand to victory. It was a punch Trout, who appeared smaller and not nearly as powerful, had few answers for. The right hand caused swelling around Trout's right eye by the fifth round. Charlo also opened a cut over Trout's eye in the 10th round.

It was an excellent win for Charlo, who went 12 rounds for the first time and will eventually have to face dangerous mandatory challenger and ringside observer Julian "J Rock" Williams (22-0-1, 14 KOs).

Jermell Charlo TKO8 John Jackson
Wins a vacant junior middleweight title
Records: Charlo (28-0, 13 KOs); Jackson (20-3, 15 KOs)

Rafael's remarks: After Floyd Mayweather retired in September he eventually vacated his world titles, including two belts at junior middleweight. Charlo and Jackson, 27, a 2008 Virgin Islands Olympian and one of the fighting sons of former junior middleweight and middleweight world titleholder Julian Jackson (one of the best punchers in boxing history), met for it.

Charlo, of Houston, got off to a poor start as Jackson, known as a puncher, did a nice job of boxing and maintaining a sound defense. He was ahead 69-64 on all three scorecards going into the eighth round and then he showed the Jackson family chin, which is to say he fell apart when he got tagged cleanly, just like what happened to his father more than once and had also happened to him when he was easily beating Andy Lee in 2014 before getting starched with one shot in the fifth round.

Out of nowhere, Charlo landed a right hand to Jackson's left eye that wobbled him. As Jackson dabbed at his face and tried to push his mouthpiece back into place, Charlo nailed him with a left hook that sent him into the ropes. He was badly dazed and referee Tony Weeks stopped the fight at 50 seconds. Just like that, the fight was over and Charlo had won a belt. Then he sat ringside and watched as his brother Jermall Charlo outpointed Trout, allowing the twins to make boxing history.

Beibut Shumenov TKO10 Junior Wright
Retains a cruiserweight title
Records: Shumenov (17-2, 11 KOs); Wright (15-2-1, 12 KOs)

Rafael's remarks: Shumenov, 32, a native of Kazakhstan based in Las Vegas, won the vacant interim belt by competitive decision against B.J. Flores in July. In the week leading up to this fight, Shumenov was upgraded from an interim titlist to a "regular" one and made his first defense against Wright, 29, of Chicago.

Wright dropped Shumenov, a former light heavyweight titlist, with a left hand in the fifth round and also had him trouble in the sixth round before Shumenov rallied to score a pair of knockdowns in the eighth round and one in the 10th round, after which Wright's corner threw in the towel. Shumenov now has 120 days to face so-called "super" titleholder Denis Lebedev in a mandatory fight.

B.J. Flores (32-2-1, 20 KOs), 37, of Phoenix, also appeared on the card in his first bout since losing the interim cruiserweight title bout to Shumenov. Flores put on 25 pounds to fight as a 224½-pound heavyweight and cruised to shutout six-round decision against Roberto Santos (12-4, 5 KOs), 27, of Mexico, winning 60-54 on all three scorecards.