Undercard Results from Las Vegas where Mirco Cuello Saved his Best for Last

Premier Boxing Champions was at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas tonight with a card topped by a battle between undefeated light heavyweights David Benavidez and David Morrell. Six prelims preceded the four-bout PPV portion of the show airing on Prime Video PPV and PPV.com.

David Benavidez’s older brother Jose Benavidez Jr kicked things off with a fifth-round stoppage of Danny Rosenberger. It was odd to see the older Benavidez fighting an 8-round contest in a nearly empty arena. Heading in, he was 28-3-1 (19) with his only setbacks coming in bouts with Terence Crawford, Jarmall Charlo, and Danny Garcia. But Benavidez Jr, fighting as a middleweight in the sunset of his career, was too good for Youngstown, Ohio’s self-managed Rosenberger (20-10-4).

Unbeaten in his last 15 starts which included a draw with Nico Ali Walsh that was changed to a no-decision when the Ohioan tested positive for a banned substance, Rosenberger was on his feet and wasn’t badly hurt when the referee waived it off, it but to that point it had been a one-sided fight.

Cuello-Olivo

The marquee fight of the prelims, so to speak, pit Argentina’s Mirco Cuello, an Olympic bronze medalist in Tokyo, managed by Sampson Lewkowicz, against Christian Olivo in a 10-round featherweight contest. The Argentine, undefeated in 14 starts with 11 KOs, was a heavy favorite over his Mexican adversary and yet very nearly came a cropper, getting off the deck to pull the match out of the fire in the final round.

In the second round, Olivo knocked Cuello to his knees with a left-right combination and Cuello found himself on the canvas for the first time in his career. From that point on, this was a competitive, fan-friendly fight, seemingly closer than the judges’ scores which became moot when Cuello took the fight out of their hands, decking Olivo twice, both left hooks to the solar plexus, which motivated referee Chris Flores to step in and stop it with heavy underdog Olivo (22-2-1) ahead by 6, 4, and 2 points through the completed rounds. The official time was 2:01.

This match was billed as a WBA eliminator which puts Cuello in line to fight England’s Nick Ball but, given a choice, Cuello may opt for the Figueroa-Fulton winner later tonight.

Other Bouts

Yoenli Hernandez, a 27-year-old Cuban, TKOed feisty but overmatched Angel Ruiz in the fifth round of an 8-round middleweight affair. Hernandez has now won all seven of his pro fights inside the distance after ending his amateur career with 26 straight wins. He bears watching. Mexico’s Ruiz falls to 19-4-1.

Salt Lake City lightweight Curmel Moton, the 18-year-old prodigy of Floyd Mayweather Jr, advanced to 7-0 (6 KOs) with a third-round stoppage of Frank Zaldivar (5-2).

Milwaukee super middleweight Daniel Blancas, a stablemate of the Benavidez brothers, improved to 12-0 (5) with a unanimous 8-round decision over Victorville, California’s Juan Barajas (11-1-2). Blancas won comfortably on the cards (80-72, 79-73 twice), but Barajas came to fight and was no pushover.

Super middleweight John “Candyman” Easter, a promising prospect, was forced to go the distance for the first time in his young career, but was a clear-cut winner over Portland, Oregon’s Joseph Aguilar in their six-round match, winning by scores of 60-54 and 59-55 twice. The 22-year-old Easter advanced to 8-0. Aguilar dops to 6-3-1.

Check back later for David Avila’s recap of the Benavidez-Morrell fight and the three other PPV bouts.

To comment on this story in the Fight Forum CLICK HERE