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To Vegas and Back, For Pacquiao-Bradley

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Fighting-inside-2aphoto by Katharine Rodriguez

The drive to Las Vegas from Riverside takes about three hours and if you have the right company or the right music it seems even shorter.

The June 9th mega fight between Timothy “Desert Storm” Bradley and Manny “Pacman” Pacquiao was motivation enough to attract large crowds to the casino capital but the annual Electric Daisy Carnival event bumped up the town 10 times more than usual.

Las Vegas was packed with teens and 20-something year olds roaming all over the desert city. Every single restaurant, every single casino and every street near the Las Vegas Strip was stacked and filled with carloads of youth driving up and down with written markings on their car windows like “EDC forever.”

I hadn’t seen Vegas this crowded since Ricky Hatton and his British followers hit the town back in December 2007. That was some bash too. The Brits drank Vegas dry and beer was hard to find. They were literally sleeping in the bar lounges of the MGM and nearby casinos.

By Thursday, the EDCers had arrived and were antsy for their party to begin. The boxing crowd would not begin arriving until Friday, yet, Vegas was already feeling the crunch of people. That was a good thing.

Usually it takes me a day to get things settled and arriving on a Thursday allows me to visit the local gyms in the area. This time however I arrived too late and only had time to do some writing.

Friday

Friday morning I woke up around 7 a.m. grabbed some coffee and checked out the schedules for the boxing events. Later, Kelly Pavlik would be fighting at the Hard Rock Hotel Casino along with several other Top Rank prospects.

My co-worker Katherine Rodriguez arrived the previous day and I picked her up around noon so we could visit Floyd Mayweather’s gym. She now writes for Uppercutmagazine.com and for La Prensa newspaper. Very few people know boxing as well as she does. Her brother would be fighting later on Friday night. Katherine is a former boxer who once fought current US Olympian Marlen Esparza and placed third in the U.S. as a junior flyweight in 2008. She knows boxing.

We were hoping to meet Costa Rica’s Bryan Vazquez who is ranked number one in the world as a junior lightweight. When we arrived we saw several boxers but the only one we recognize is Celestino Caballero who currently holds the WBA featherweight world title.

Caballero is a funny guy. The nearly six-feet tall Panamanian is going to be 36 next week but looks more like 23. It’s probably his humor that keeps him looking young. He will be defending the WBA title against Riverside’s Mikey Garcia.

He’s a chatty guy who doesn’t mind working out while talking. He expects to beat Garcia because he feels that the former Oxnard prizefighter is not as strong as himself. The fight was supposed to take place in July at Fantasy Springs Casino but it’s postponed and reset for Sept. 7 in Las Vegas. Expect an explosive title fight.

We leave after 30 minutes and head back to the Hard Rock where we meet Las Vegas boxing trainer James Pena. He works with Melinda Cooper who many consider one of the top female prizefighters pound for pound. We discuss women’s boxing and also talk about some of the events scheduled later in the evening and on Saturday’s big fight card. Everybody agrees that Timothy Bradley has a good shot at beating Pacman. While we’re sitting at the table eating, at a table nearby two girls in bikinis are enjoying their drinks and meals too. One of the girls facing us has her top literally pop off. Everybody feigns shock and laughs. She laughs too and apologizes for the eruption. We cover our eyes in mock terror and laugh some more.

After lunch I head toward the arena called the Joint to grab my press credential. Katherine heads back to her room to change. While getting my credential I notice that the Hard Rock is super packed. I expect the arena to be filled considering the amount of people milling around.

I arrived early because scheduled to fight in the first bout is Riverside prospect Saul “Dinamita” Rodriguez. So far he’s knocked out all four opponents and none survived into minute two of round one. On this day he’ll face a kid who is taller and just as sturdy. They battle toe-to-toe evenly but it’s evident that Rodriguez has the better skills and better power. The other kid, Kevin Davila, backs off and resorts to different measures. Nothing really works and Rodriguez out-hits his opponent all four rounds. His work to the body tells the story. Those punches sound like they’re coming from a middleweight. Rodriguez is only 19 so I can imagine how much harder he’s going to hit in a few years. He’s being taught the finer points of boxing by Eduardo Garcia who taught both Fernando Vargas and Robert Garcia everything they know. He also trains Mikey Garcia in Riverside. Don Garcia is one of the best trainers in the world but few know this. He doesn’t work the corner during his son Mikey’s fights or during Saul Rodriguez’s fights. Instead it is Robert Garcia who works the corner though he doesn’t really train them. But he knows their tendencies and what they can do. The system works for them.

Another boxer performing that night was local hero Jesse Magdaleno. I had seen him fight a few times over the past few years but didn’t really take note of him. Not until I saw him fight on a boxing card in Pomona did I notice the improvement. He was sharper and more accurate, plus he was setting up opponents rather than overwhelming them. Against a kid named Nick Fast he was pinpoint and impressive. That fight prompted me to watch him again and against Puerto Rico’s Carlos Valcarcel he proved to be just as impressive again in a junior featherweight contest. Magdaleno ended the former Olympian’s night in 2:25 of the first round. He’s becoming a polished prospect.

Notre Dame football player Mike Lee fought on the card too against Mexico’s Eliseo Durazo. Lee has been refining his skills and has a good trainer in Ronnie Shields. The Mexican fighter Durazo has experience and used it in preventing Lee from overwhelming him throughout the fight. Lee won nearly every round and ended the fight with a barrage of punches. It was a little dangerous but he has the chin to take gambles like that every so often. His crowd arrived for the fight in force as usual and gave him great support.

The main event was Kelly Pavlik against Scott Sigmon in a super middleweight match. Pavlik has been training in Oxnard under Robert Garcia. It’s a good fit for the former middleweight champion and against Sigmon he was too powerful and too polished. Sigmon took a large amount of punishment. In my estimation, the fight should have been stopped around the fifth round. I’ve seen many fights in my experience including a dozen boxers die from punishment endured in the boxing ring. This was one of those moments where a fighter was just too tough for his own good. Pavlik was hitting the kid to the body and head with blows that would kill a steer. Sigmon took them all and returned very little. Finally the fight was stopped in round seven. Thankfully, the kid from Virginia was not hurt too bad.

After the long fight card I returned to my hotel to get some rest. Saturday would be a long day and every moment of rest is important.

Saturday

Early Saturday I had to check out and gather my stuff. There were breakfast press conferences planned for WBA champ Gennady Golovkin who is set to fight WBO champ Dmitry Pirog in a battle of undefeated middleweight world titleholders on August 25. I can’t make the press conference but I hope to make their fight if its held in the West Coast. Golovkin is training in Big Bear mountain and that’s about an hour away from Riverside. I’ll be visiting him.

By the time I check out of my hotel, pick up fellow writer Katherine Rodriguez, grab my credential and a few other things it’s noon. We race to one of the breakfast press conferences where Andre Ward and Chad Dawson talk about their September date in Oakland. We catch about 15 minutes of the talking.

It’s about 1:30 so we head toward the media center tent outside of the arena. Photographer Al Applerose who works with me and Katherine is already inside. He rode in with German Villasenor who shoots for Maxboxing.com. We all chat a bit about the fights from the previous night and what to expect from the big fight card.

The first bout begins around 3:15 and I go inside the arena that sits more than 16,000 and hear the introduction music to one of the fighters. There are probably only a few hundred people sitting at the moment. The first fight begins and ends very quickly.

Everyone knows what happened in the fights including the eruption of controversy regarding the decision in favor of Timothy Bradley. I’m tired of arguing about it especially when it really doesn’t matter any more. All I can say is that I felt it was a much closer fight than most people. Lots and lots of missed blows. Judge Jerry Roth is one of the best in the world and he had it a close fight in favor of Manny Pacquiao. He had it close and I agree it was close, but I think Bradley fought all three minutes of every round and Pacquiao only one minute of each round and paid for it. Bradley absolutely won more than a single round. Round two was definitely his as he battered Pacquiao with nearly a dozen blows while in a clinch. Whoever didn’t score that round for Bradley is definitely wrong. Another thing is CompuBox. They had Bradley with 21 connects in round nine. I easily counted 40 for Bradley in that round. Nobody is perfect, but using CompuBox for an argument is not scientific proof. It’s approximate proof.

After I posted my story I had many people tell me I don’t know what I’m talking about. Au contraire. I see more than 400 fights a year and I doubt if there are more than a dozen people in the world including judges that see that many fights live. The HBO crew definitely does not. I can tell you which judges like busy fighters, which like defense and which like actual scoring blows. I’ve seen them all judge fights for the past 20 years. Roth is one of the best. Roth, Pat Russell, and Max DeLuca are the three best judges in the world. They’re very consistent. Russell is absolutely the best referee in the world aside from being one of the best judges. There are several others including about three more from Nevada.

During the post fight press conference there were thousands of people milling around. I saw reporters from Mexico, United Kingdom, Italy, Japan, Philippines and from all over the U.S. One thing that always happens is whenever there is a decision in a big fight someone is going to get angry. Everyone thinks they’re correct.

All you hear is people crying and moaning “that’s what’s wrong about boxing.” It’s all become a cliché. Boxing has been this way for more than 100 years. The only time there is near satisfaction is a victory by knockout. MMA is the same thing. Knockouts and submissions are what only satisfy MMA fans too.

That’s just the way prizefighting is. A lot of people argue that it should be like basketball or soccer where there is a definite winner. Of course that would be great, but it’s impossible to do at the moment. Besides, NBA and soccer are filled with cheating. Every time you see a player flop that’s really cheating. Every time you see a guy double dribble or carry the ball that’s cheating. Soccer is horrible with its guys feigning injury near the goal so that they can get a free kick. Whenever I see a seven-foot NBA giant fall down when somebody touches him it makes me wince. I saw Derek Fisher just graze a center and he flopped as if he was hit by a Mack truck. It’s ridiculous. I can’t watch it. It’s become a sissy sport. So has soccer.

Well enough of that. I feel better now.

After about 45 minutes Katherine Rodriguez and her family joined me on the ride home around midnight. Three hours later we were back in Riverside. The roads were rather clear without the EDC minions riding about.

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History has Shortchanged Freddie Dawson, One of the Best Boxers of his Era

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History has Shortchanged Freddie Dawson, One of the Best Boxers of his Era

This reporter was rummaging around the internet last week when he stumbled on a story in the May 1950 issue of Ebony under the byline of Mike Jacobs. Boxing was then in the doldrums (isn’t it always?) and Jacobs, the most powerful promoter in boxing during the era of Joe Louis, was lassoed by the editors of the magazine to address the question of whether the over-representation of black boxers was killing the sport at the box office.

This hoary premise had been kicking around even before the heyday of Jack Johnson, bubbling forth whenever an important black-on-black fight played to a sea of empty seats as had happened the previous year when Chicago’s Comiskey Park hosted the world heavyweight title fight between Ezzard Charles and Jersey Joe Walcott.

Jacobs ridiculed the hypothesis – as one could have expected considering the publication in which the story ran – and singled out three “colored” boxers as the best of the current crop of active pugilists: Sugar Ray Robinson, Ike Williams, and Freddie Dawson.

Sugar Ray Robinson? A no-brainer. Skill-wise the greatest of the great. Even those that didn’t follow boxing, would have recognized his name. Ike Williams? Nowhere near as well-known as Robinson, but he was then the reigning lightweight champion, a man destined to go into the International Boxing Hall of Fame with the inaugural class of 1990.

And Freddie Dawson? If the name doesn’t ring a bell, dear reader, you are not alone. I confess that I too drew a blank. And that triggered a search to learn more about him.

Freddie Dawson had four fights with Ike Williams. All four were staged on Ike’s turf in Philadelphia. Were this not the case, the history books would likely show the series knotted 2-2. Late in his career, Dawson became greatly admired in Australia. But we are jumping ahead of ourselves.

Dawson was born in 1924 in Thomasville, Arkansas, an unincorporated town in the Arkansas Delta. Likely a descendent of slaves who worked in the cotton plantations, he grew up in the so-called Bronzeville neighborhood of Chicago, the heart of Chicago’s Black Belt.

The first mention of him in the newspapers came in 1941 when he won Chicago’s Catholic Youth Organization (CYO) featherweight title. In those days, amateur boxing was big in the Windy City, the birthplace of the Golden Gloves. The Catholic Archdiocese, which ran gyms in every parish, and the Chicago Parks Department, were the major incubators.

In his amateur days, he was known as simply Fred Dawson. As a pro, his name often appeared as Freddy Dawson, although Freddie gradually became the more common spelling.

Dawson, who stood five-foot-six and was often described as stocky, made his pro debut on Feb. 1, 1943, at Marigold Gardens. Before the year was out, he had 16 fights under his belt, all in Chicago and all but two at Marigold. (Currently the site of an interdenominational Christian church, Marigold Gardens, on the city’s north side, was Chicago’s most active boxing and wrestling arena from the mid-1930s through the early-1950s. Joe Louis had three of his early fights there and Tony Zale was a fixture there as he climbed the ladder to the world middleweight title.)

The last of these 16 fights was fatal for Dawson’s opponent who collapsed heading back to his corner after the fight was stopped in the 10th round and died that night at a local hospital from the effects of a brain injury.

Dawson left town after this incident and spent most of the next year in New Orleans where energetic promoter Louis Messina ran twice-weekly shows (Mondays for whites and Fridays for blacks) at the Coliseum, a major stop on boxing’s so-called Chitlin’ Circuit.

That same year, on Sept. 19, 1944, Dawson had his first encounter with Ike Williams. He was winning the fight when Ike knocked him out with a body punch in the fourth round.

The first and last meetings between Dawson and Ike Williams were spaced five years apart. In the interim, Freddie scored his two best wins, stopping Vic Patrick in the twelfth round at Sydney, NSW, and Bernard Docusen in the sixth round in Chicago.

The long-reigning lightweight champion of Australia, Patrick (49-3, 43 KOs) gave the crowd a thrill when he knocked Dawson down for a count of “six” in the penultimate 11th round, but Dawson returned the favor twice in the final stanza, ending the contest with a punch so harsh that the poor Aussie needed five minutes before he was fit to leave the ring and would spend the night in the hospital as a precaution.

Dawson fought Bernard Docusen before 10,000-plus at Chicago Stadium on Feb. 4, 1949. An 8/5 favorite, Docusen lacked a hard punch, but the New Orleans cutie had suffered only three losses in 66 fights, had never been stopped, and had extended Sugar Ray Robinson the 15-round distance the previous year.

Dawson dismantled him. Docusen managed to get back on his feet after Dawson knocked him down in the sixth, but he was in no condition to continue and the referee waived the fight off. Dawson was then vacillating between the lightweight and welterweight divisions and reporters wondered whether it would be Robinson or Ike Williams when Dawson finally got his well-earned title shot.

Sugar Ray wasn’t in his future. Here are the results of his other matches with Ike Williams:

Dawson-Williams II (Jan. 28, 1946) – The consensus on press row was 7-2-1 or 7-3 for Dawson, but the match was ruled a draw. “[The judges and referee] evidently saw [Williams] land punches that nobody else did,” said the ringside reporter for the Philadelphia Inquirer.

Dawson-Williams III (Jan. 26, 1948) – Dawson lost a majority decision. The scores were 6-4, 5-4-1, and 4-4-2. The decision was booed. Ike Williams then held the lightweight title, but this was a non-title fight. (It was tough for an outsider to get a fair shake in Philadelphia, home to Ike Williams’ co-manager Frank “Blinky” Palermo who would go to prison for his duplicitous dealings as a fight facilitator.)

Dawson-Williams IV (Dec. 5, 1949) – This would be Freddie Dawson’s only crack at a world title and he came up short. Ike Williams retained the belt, winning a unanimous decision. The fight was close – 8-7, 8-7, 9-6 – but there was no controversy.

Dawson made three more trips to Australia before his career was finished. On the first of these trips, he knocked out Jack Hassen, successor to Vic Patrick as the lightweight champion of Australia. A 1953 article in the Sydney Sunday Herald bore witness to the esteem in which Dawson was held by boxing fans in Australia: “None of our boxers could withstand his devastating attacks which not only knocked them out but also knocked years off their careers,” said the author. “It is doubtful whether any Australian boxer in any division could have beaten Dawson.”

Dawson had his final fights in the Land Down Under, finishing his career with a record of 103-14-4 while answering the bell for 962 rounds. Following what became his final fight, he had an eye operation in Sydney that was reportedly so intricate that it required a two-week hospital stay. He injured the eye again in Manila while sparring in preparation for a match with the welterweight champion of the Philippines, a match that had to be aborted because of the injury. Dawson then disappeared, by which we mean that he disappeared from the pages of the newspaper archives that allow us to construct these kinds of stories.

What about Freddie Dawson the man? A 1944 story about him said he was an outstanding all-around athlete, “a champion in all athletic undertakings – basketball, baseball, track and even jitterbugging.” A story in a Sydney paper as he was preparing to meet Vic Patrick informs us that he had two young children, ages 2 and 1, owned his own home in Chicago, and drove a two-year-old Cadillac. But beyond these flimsy snippets, Dawson the man remains elusive.

What we learned, however, is that he was one of the most underrated boxers to come down the pike in any era, a borderline Hall of Famer who ought not have fallen through the cracks. Inside the ring, this guy was one tough hombre.

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Ringside at the Fontainebleau where Mikaela Mayer Won her Rematch with Sandy Ryan

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LAS VEGAS, NV — The first meeting between Mikaela Mayer and Sandy Ryan last September at Madison Square Garden was punctuated with drama before the first punch was thrown. When the smoke cleared, Mayer had become a world-title-holder in a second weight class, taking away Ryan’s WBO welterweight belt via a majority decision in a fan-friendly fight.

The rematch tonight at the Fontainebleau in Las Vegas was another fan-friendly fight. There were furious exchanges in several rounds and the crowd awarded both gladiators a standing ovation at the finish.

Mayer dominated the first half of the fight and held on to win by a unanimous decision. But Sandy Ryan came on strong beginning in round seven, and although Mayer was the deserving winner, the scores favoring her (98-92 and 97-93 twice) fail to reflect the competitiveness of the match-up. This is the best rivalry in women’s boxing aside from Taylor-Serrano.

Mayer, 34, improved to 21-2 (5). Up next, she hopes, in a unification fight with Lauren Price who outclassed Natasha Jonas earlier this month and currently holds the other meaningful pieces of the 147-pound puzzle. Sandy Ryan, 31, the pride of Derby, England, falls to 7-3-1.

Co-Feature

In his first defense of his WBO world welterweight title (acquired with a brutal knockout of Giovani Santillan after the title was vacated by Terence Crawford), Atlanta’s Brian Norman Jr knocked out Puerto Rico’s Derrieck Cuevas in the third round. A three-punch combination climaxed by a short left hook sent Cuevas staggering into a corner post. He got to his feet before referee Thomas Taylor started the count, but Taylor looked in Cuevas’s eyes and didn’t like what he saw and brought the bout to a halt.

The stoppage, which struck some as premature, came with one second remaining in the third stanza.

A second-generation prizefighter (his father was a fringe contender at super middleweight), the 24-year-old Norman (27-0, 21 KOs) is currently boxing’s youngest male title-holder. It was only the second pro loss for Cuevas (27-2-1) whose lone previous defeat had come early in his career in a 6-rounder he lost by split decision.

Other Bouts

In a career-best performance, 27-year-old Brooklyn featherweight Bruce “Shu Shu” Carrington (15-0, 9 KOs) blasted out Jose Enrique Vivas (23-4) in the third round.

Carrington, who was named the Most Outstanding Boxer at the 2019 U.S. Olympic Trials despite being the lowest-seeded boxer in his weight class, decked Vivas with a right-left combination near the end of the second round. Vivas barely survived the round and was on a short leash when the third stanza began. After 53 seconds of round three, referee Raul Caiz Jr had seen enough and waived it off. Vivas hadn’t previously been stopped.

Cleveland welterweight Tiger Johnson, a Tokyo Olympian, scored a fifth-round stoppage over San Antonio’s Kendo Castaneda. Johnson assumed control in the fourth round and sent Castaneda to his knees twice with body punches in the next frame. The second knockdown terminated the match. The official time was 2:00 of round five.

Johnson advanced to 15-0 (7 KOs). Castenada declined to 21-9.

Las Vegas junior welterweight Emiliano Vargas (13-0, 11 KOs) blasted out Stockton, California’s Giovanni Gonzalez in the second round. Vargas brought the bout to a sudden conclusion with a sweeping left hook that knocked Gonzalez out cold. The end came at the 2:00 minute mark of round two.

Gonzalez brought a 20-7-2 record which was misleading as 18 of his fights were in Tijuana where fights are frequently prearranged.  However, he wasn’t afraid to trade with Vargas and paid the price.

Emiliano Vargas, with his matinee idol good looks and his boxing pedigree – he is the son of former U.S. Olympian and two-weight world title-holder “Ferocious” Fernando Vargas – is highly marketable and has the potential to be a cross-over star.

Eighteen-year-old Newark bantamweight Emmanuel “Manny” Chance, one of Top Rank’s newest signees, won his pro debut with a four-round decision over So Cal’s Miguel Guzman. Chance won all four rounds on all three cards, but this was no runaway. He left a lot of room for improvement.

There was a long intermission before the co-main and again before the main event, but the tedium was assuaged by a moving video tribute to George Foreman.

Photos credit: Al Applerose

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William Zepeda Edges Past Tevin Farmer in Cancun; Improves to 34-0

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William Zepeda Edges Past Tevin Farmer in Cancun; Improves to 34-0

No surprise, once again William Zepeda eked out a win over the clever and resilient Tevin Farmer to remain undefeated and retain a regional lightweight title on Saturday.

There were no knockdowns in this rematch.

The Mexican punching machine Zepeda (33-0, 17 KOs) once more sought to overwhelm Farmer (33-8-1, 9 KOs) with a deluge of blows. This rematch by Golden Boy Promotions took place in the famous beach resort area of Cancun, Mexico.

It was a mere four months ago that both first clashed in Saudi Arabia with their vastly difference styles. This time the tropical setting served as the background which suited Zepeda and his lawnmower assaults. The Mexican fans were pleased.

Nothing changed in their second meeting.

Zepeda revved up the body assault and Farmer moved around casually to his right while fending off the Mexican fighter’s attacks. By the fourth round Zepeda was able to cut off Farmer’s escape routes and targeted the body with punishing shots.

The blows came in bunches.

In the fifth round Zepeda blasted away at Farmer who looked frantic for an escape. The body assault continued with the Mexican fighter pouring it on and Farmer seeming to look ready to quit. When the round ended, he waved off his corner’s appeals to stop.

Zepeda continued to dominate the next few rounds and then Farmer began rallying. At first, he cleverly smothered Zepeda’s body attacks and then began moving and hitting sporadically. It forced the Mexican fighter to pause and figure out the strategy.

Farmer, a Philadelphia fighter, showed resiliency especially when it was revealed he had suffered a hand injury.

During the last three rounds Farmer dug down deep and found ways to score and not get hit. It was Boxing 101 and the Philly fighter made it work.

But too many rounds had been put in the bank by Zepeda. Despite the late rally by Farmer one judge saw it 114-114, but two others scored it 116-112 and 115-113 for Zepeda who retains his interim lightweight title and place at the top of the WBC rankings.

“I knew he was a difficult fighter. This time he was even more difficult,” said Zepeda.

Farmer was downtrodden about another loss but realistic about the outcome and starting slow.

“But I dominated the last rounds,” said Farmer.

Zepeda shrugged at the similar outcome as their first encounter.

“I’m glad we both put on a great show,” said Zepeda.

Female Flyweight Battle

Costa Rica’s Yokasta Valle edged past Texas fighter Marlen Esparza to win their showdown at flyweight by split decision after 10 rounds.

Valle moved up two weight divisions to meet Esparza who was slightly above the weight limit. Both showed off their contrasting styles and world class talent.

Esparza, a former unified flyweight world titlist, stayed in the pocket and was largely successful with well-placed jabs and left hooks. She repeatedly caught Valle in-between her flurries.

The current minimumweight world titlist changed tactics and found more success in the second half of the fight. She forced Esparza to make the first moves and that forced changes that benefited her style.

Neither fighter could take over the fight.

After 10 rounds one judge saw Esparza the winner 96-94, but two others saw Valle the winner 97-93 twice.

Will Valle move up and challenge the current undisputed flyweight world champion Gabriela Fundora? That’s the question.

Valle currently holds the WBC minimumweight world title.

Puerto Rico vs Mexico

Oscar Collazo (12-0, 9 KOs), the WBO, WBA minimumweight titlist, knocked out Mexico’s Edwin Cano (13-3-1, 4 KOs) with a flurry of body shots at 1:12 of the fifth round.

Collazo dominated with a relentless body attack the Mexican fighter could not defend. It was the Puerto Rican fighter’s fifth consecutive title defense.

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