Scorecard: Anthony Dirrell rebounds from title defeat

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

Sunday at Corpus Christi, Texas

Anthony Dirrell W10 Marco Antonio Rubio
Super middleweights
Scores: 100-90 (three times)
Records: Dirrell (28-1-1, 22 KOs); Rubio (59-8-1, 51 KOs)

Rafael's remarks: Thirteen months ago, Dirrell, 30, of Flint, Michigan, won a hard-fought unanimous decision against Sakio Bika in a rematch of their draw to claim a world title. Dirrell, a cancer survivor, has also come back from a motorcycle accident that nearly ended his career. But on April 24 in Chicago, Dirrell made his first defense and was flat. He lost a majority decision and his 168-pound belt to Badou Jack. In his first fight since losing his world title and his undefeated record, Dirrell returned. And although it was a lackluster bout fought at a slow pace, Dirrell did what he needed to do. He totally dominated the outclassed Rubio and won every round for the shutout decision in the CBS-televised Premier Boxing Champions main event. The fight looked like a mismatch on paper and was exactly that in reality.

Although Rubio, 35, of Mexico, was moving up in weight from middleweight, he looked fleshy and out of shape. He was also a heavy underdog because the former middleweight contender was coming off a blowout second-round knockout loss to middleweight titleholder Gennady Golovkin 11 months ago. He is smaller, slower and not nearly as skilled as Dirrell -- all of that was plainly obvious.

Rubio's best moment of the fight came in the fourth round, the only one that looked like he conceivably could have won. During the round, he landed some hard shots, including a left hook that appeared to briefly rattle Dirrell. Other than that, Rubio spent most of the fight waiting to punch and never really got off compared to Dirrell, who beat him to the punch time and again.

According to CompuBox punch statistics, Dirrell landed 286 of 581 punches (49 percent) and Rubio connected on only 131 of 436 (30 percent). Dirrell, who said he deserved another shot at a world title, never landed fewer than 21 punches in a round and Rubio never landed more than 19 in a round.

Jamie McDonnell W12 Tomoki Kameda
Retains a bantamweight title
Scores: 117-110, 116-111, 115-112
Records: McDonnell (27-2-1, 12 KOs); Kameda (31-2, 19 KOs)

Rafael's remarks: On May 9, McDonnell, 29, of England, met the 24-year-old Kameda (who is from Japan but has lived in Mexico since he was a teenager) in Hidalgo, Texas, on a Premier Boxing Champions card on CBS. The fight was intended as a title unification bout, but because McDonnell holds only a secondary belt to main titleholder Juan Carlos Payano, it was not approved as a unification, so Kameda gave up his belt and faced McDonnell anyway. It was a terrific fight, and even though Kameda dropped McDonnell in the third round, McDonnell closed strongly and went on to win 114-113 on all three scorecards.

It was the kind of fight that called for a rematch, so they did it again -- again in Texas and again on a PBC on CBS undercard. And once again, McDonnell and Kameda put on an excellent show. Although the scores were much wider in McDonnell's favor this time, there were some, including the CBS broadcast crew, who thought Kameda, the more accurate puncher of the two fighters, clearly won the fight. He seemed to get off to a strong start thanks to his movement, but McDonnell, who was the busier boxer, once again did his best work in the second half of the fight, especially late. He pressured the counterpunching Kameda a lot in a back-and-forth, fan-friendly fight.

McDonnell, a two-time bantamweight titlist, punctuated his victory by dropping Kameda, who had overhauled his corner after the first fight, with a short right hand to the chin midway through the 12th round. Kameda argued that it was a slip, but even though Kameda did slip, McDonnell also landed the punch, and referee Jon Schorle rightfully called it a knockdown.

McDonnell, who would like to move up to junior featherweight and challenge countryman Scott Quigg for his belt, believed he clearly won: "I didn't think it was a controversial decision, because I always felt in control and I believe that I won the fight comfortably. My jab was the key in the fight and it was a great weapon for me. I just had to make sure that I stuck to the game plan we had been working on for over eight weeks. When I dropped him in the last round, I think he did slip a little bit. I tried to stay away, but I did catch him. After that I know I sealed the victory. Everything went according to plan. The plan was to box him and catch him with some big shots."

Kameda disagreed: "I thought I won this fight a lot more clearly than the last fight. I followed our plan perfectly. I did everything right."

Also on the card, bantamweight Victor Ruiz (20-5, 14 KOs), 24, of Mexico, claimed a split decision against Japan's 26-year-old Daiki Kameda (29-5, 18 KOs), Tomoki's older brother and a former flyweight and junior bantamweight world titleholder. Daiki Kameda, coming off a nearly two-year layoff, lost his second fight in a row. He was boxing for the first time since a split-decision defeat to Liborio Solis in what was supposed to have been a junior bantamweight title unification bout in December 2013 -- except that Kameda did not make weight and was stripped of his belt.

Saturday at Dresden, Germany

Juergen Braehmer TKO8 Konni Konrad
Retains a light heavyweight title
Records: Braehmer (47-2, 35 KOs); Konrad (21-2-1, 11 KOs)

Rafael's remarks: Braehmer, a 36-year-old southpaw from Germany, had an easy night against Konrad, 30, his former sparring partner. In making the fifth defense of his secondary title -- Sergey Kovalev has the organization's top title -- Braehmer continued his soft schedule of facing second-rate opponents. He was the heavy favorite against Konrad, who is from Montenegro but lives in Germany, and he dominated.

Konrad got a title bout despite having never defeated a quality opponent in his 13-year career and was outclassed. Braehmer staggered him with a straight left hand in the first round and took it to him throughout the fight. He knocked Konrad down with a clean counter left hand midway through the sixth round, which he was lucky to survive. Braehmer had busted up his left eye and Konrad, who took a lot of punches, eventually quit as the bell for the eighth round rang. Official time was one second into the eighth round.

Saturday at Leeds, England

Josh Warrington W12 Joel Brunker
Retains Commonwealth featherweight title
Scores: 120-108 (three times)
Records: Warrington (22-0, 4 KOs); Brunker (28-2, 16 KOs)

Rafael's remarks: Fighting before a wild hometown crowd, Warrington, 24, figured to have a competitive fight with Brunker, 29, of Australia, but it turned out to be far from that. Instead of getting a good go from Brunker, Warrington dominated to the tune of a clean shutout to retain his Commonwealth title for the first time. Warrington, also the European 126-pound champion (that belt was not on the line), displayed fine boxing skills and speed and kept his hands busy as he pressed the action. Although Warrington is not much of a puncher, he had Brunker befuddled throughout the fight. Brunker didn't land much of anything and dropped to 1-2 in his last three fights with the other loss coming by ninth-round knockout to Lee Selby in a world title elimination fight 11 months ago, also in England; Selby went on to win a world title in his next bout.

Warrington believes that this win should push him into a bigger fight. He'd like to challenge Selby for his world title. They're both with Matchroom Boxing promoter Eddie Hearn, so it is a fight that could happen, although Selby is coming to the United States to defend his title against former three-division titlist Fernando Montiel on Oct. 14. Hearn said after the fight that "there is no reason" the fight can't happen next year.

"It was my biggest test," Warrington said of Brunker. "I wanted to listen to my corner men tonight and that is what I did. It was about showing that I could box for 12 rounds. I did have him wobbled a couple of times and I am happy with the performance. I knew he was a dangerous guy so I wanted to take my time and stick to my boxing. Joel is a world-class performer with a brilliant record and you know you can't come in at 99 percent. You have to be 100 percent switched on. I know what the crowd wants and I have to take every fight as it comes and it is all working towards that big world title fight against Lee Selby."

Martin Murray TKO5 Jose Miguel Torres
Super middleweights
Records: Murray (32-2-1, 15 KOs); Torres (31-7, 27 KOs)

Rafael's remarks: In February, Murray got battered in an 11th-round knockout loss challenging middleweight destroyer Gennady Golovkin for his world title. After the loss, Murray, 32, of England, signed with promoter Eddie Hearn of Matchroom Boxing and moved up to super middleweight, where he fought for the third time since June. He faced Torres, 36, of Colombia, who had won four fights in a row since being knocked out by David Lemieux in the seventh round of a middleweight fight in November 2013. But Torres, despite his big heart, posted no match whatsoever for Murray, who also failed in two other middleweight world title fights (a decision to Sergio Martinez and a draw with Felix Sturm).

Torres was target practice for Murray, who knocked him down seven times -- seven times! -- including once in the first round, twice in the second, again in the third, two more times in the fourth and one more time in the fifth before referee Howard John Foster called it off at 2 minutes, 19 seconds. Since moving up to 168 pounds, Murray's goal has been to land a world title fight against Germany's Arthur Abraham (43-4, 29 KOs), which Hearn has been discussing with Abraham promoter Team Sauerland.

Also on the card, cruiserweight Tony Bellew (25-2-1, 16 KOs), 32, of England, knocked out no-hoper Arturs Kulikauskis (16-27-5, 8 KOs), 24, of Latvia, a 2 minutes, 7 seconds of the fifth round to win his fifth fight in a row since light heavyweight champion Adonis Stevenson knocked him out in the sixth round of a world title fight in November 2013.

Saturday at Mexico City

Daniel Rosas  TKO8 Jhon Gemino
Junior featherweights
Records: Rosas (19-2-1, 12 KOs); Gemino (12-5-1, 5 KOs)

Rafael's remarks: In a hard-hitting fight, Rosas, 25, of Mexico, finally took out Gemino, 23, of the Philippines. Rosas suffered a cut over his left eye in the second round but shook it off and continued to battle toe-to-toe with Gemino. Late in the eighth round, Rosas badly hurt Gemino with a left hook to the body. Surprisingly, Gemino did not go down immediately. He tried to hang in there but was in bad shape. Although Rosas landed a few more shots to send Gemino to the canvas on all fours it was really the body shot that caused the knockdown. Referee Gelasio Perez counted him out at 2 minutes, 49 seconds.

Rosas won his second fight in a row since back-to-back losses, including a decision to Alejandro Hernandez for an interim bantamweight belt in June 2014. Gemino lost his second fight in a row and dropped to 2-3 in his last five bouts.

Friday at Los Angeles

Diego De La Hoya  W10 Jesus Ruiz
Junior featherweights
Scores: 100-90 (twice), 99-91
Records: De La Hoya (12-0, 7 KOs); Ruiz (32-7-5, 21 KOs)

Rafael's remarks: De La Hoya is a first cousin of his promoter and Hall of Famer Oscar De La Hoya, and while he did not win an Olympic gold medal and come into the professional ranks with massive hype, he had some because of his famous last name. But De La Hoya, 21, of Mexico, is a quality prospect moving along at a good pace as he climbs the ranks.

Ruiz, 25, of Mexico, was the most experienced opponent of his career. Two fights ago, in January, Ruiz challenged Leo Santa Cruz for his junior featherweight world title and lost by eighth-round knockout. While De La Hoya was unable to score a knockout, he thoroughly dominated Ruiz in the main event of Golden Boy Promotions' first card on its new deal with Spanish-language network Estrella TV. Although De La Hoya suffered a cut over his right eye from an accidental head butt in the seventh round, it did not deter him en route to the near-shutout-decision win. De La Hoya was simply faster, fresher and stronger as he timed Ruiz's shots all night, countered nicely and connected with repeated hard shots.

"Movement was a big part of our plan to outbox him and so we conditioned so that I could move effectively throughout the fight," De La Hoya said. "I felt comfortable and calm and in control throughout the whole fight and I thought I landed some good uppercuts and really hurt him. Those were some of my favorite punches to throw."