Mario Barrios wasn’t great, but he was good enough.
The welterweight contender dropped and defeated a defense-minded Fabian Maidana by a unanimous decision in a 12 round fight on the Canelo Alvarez-Jaime Munguia card Saturday in Las Vegas.
All three official judges had the same score, 116-111, eight rounds to four.
Neither fighter was particularly active. Barrios (29-2, 18 KOs) stalked Maidana (22-3, 16 KOs) for most of the fight but his feet were busier than his hands, as he threw mostly single punches.
The winner also fought with a right eye that was swollen shut by the end of the fight, which didn’t help his cause.
Meanwhile, Maidana, the brother of Marcos Maidana, fought only in shot spurts. He spent the majority of the time in survival mode instead of taking the risks necessary to win the biggest fight of his career, which made it difficult for Barrios to look good.
The most dramatic moment came in Round 3, when Barrios poked out a weak jab and then followed with a perfect right that put Maidana on the canvas.
The 31-year-old Argentine, who wasn’t seriously hurt, got up quickly and resumed fighting. However, that experience might’ve contributed to his reluctance to mix it up.
The result was a boring fight.
Barrios has won three consecutive bouts since he lost back-to-back outings against Keith Thurman (UD) and Gervonta Davis (TKO 8). He was coming off a strong performance in September, when he easily outpointed former titleholder Yordenis Ugas.
Barrios was defending his WBC “interim” title.
