Late lineup addition Moises Sierra hit a tying RBI double in the fifth, Jose Reyes added a go-ahead single two batters later and the spirited Dominicans reached the WBC championship game with a 4-1 win against the Netherlands on Monday night.
Edwin Encarnacion hit a two-run double in the first inning that held up, and the Dominicans capped a dominant, unbeaten run through the WBC with a 3-0 win against Puerto Rico for the championship Tuesday night.
Eight months later, Jones challenged Antonio Tarver for his WBC light-heavyweight belt and nicked a contentious majority decision.
On the undercard, champion Jorge Arce retained the WBC light flyweight title with a third-round technical knockout of Mexican compatriot Augustin Luna.
The Dutch lefty, who came in at a 2-0 with a 0.90 ERA in his two previous WBC outings, didn't allow a runner past first base through four innings.
The New York Yankees' second baseman hit two homers and drove in six runs as the Dominicans went 8-0, capped by a 3-0 win over Puerto Rico on Tuesday night for the third WBC title.
However Khan, ranked number two with the WBO and five by the WBC, said the 25-year-old would provide a real test.
It was Pavlik's second successful defence of his WBC and WBO belts, which he won with a technical knock-out of Jermain Taylor in September 2007.
Granderson, a member of the U.S. team in the 2009 WBC, doesn't think it has much of a carry-over effect on players during the regular season.
In four WBC games, Wright went 7-for-16 (.438) with a pair of doubles and a grand slam.
It will be the biggest all-British fight for a world heavyweight title since Lennox Lewis defended his WBC crown by stopping Frank Bruno in round seven of their 1993 contest in Cardiff.
Froch moved closer to a domestic super-fight with Joe Calzaghe when he was installed as the WBC's third-ranked super middleweight.
And tough Korean Injin Chi, the WBC title holder, is being tailed by Scotland's Scott Harrison, a proposition not for the faint-hearted.
Cano, a four-time All-Star who returned to camp Thursday, was MVP of the WBC after hitting .469 with two homers and six RBIs.
Jean Pascal is WBC champion and Beibut Shumenov the WBA title holder, while if Braehmer fails in his appeal against a 16-month prison sentence for assault and insulting behaviour the winner of Cleverly and Murat will replace him as WBO king.
It was a first defeat for Hopkins, the nephew of former middle and light-heavyweight champion Bernard Hopkins, while Holt is now in line for a unification bout next year against WBC champion Timothy Bradley.
应用推荐