Fast Results from Kissimmee: Navarette TKO 12 Diaz; Berlanga UD 8 Nicholson

Fast Results from Kissimmee: Navarette TKO 12 Diaz; Berlanga UD 8 Nicholson

Top Rank was in Kissimmee, Florida tonight, a community where roughly 40 percent of the population is of Puerto Rican lineage. All eight bouts on the card included a Puerto Rican fighter. The fighter with the toughest assignment was Christopher Diaz who was getting a second crack at a world title belt after coming up short against Masayuki Ito at this venue.

Diaz (26-3) found himself in against Emanuel Navarette. Boxing’s most active title-holder, Navarette came in riding a 28-fight winning streak (27 per BoxRec) and was  making the first defense of the WBO world featherweight title he won with a 12-round decision over Ruben Villa after five successful defenses of his 122-pound belt. Big for the weight with unusually long arms, Navarette had too much firepower for Diaz who absorbed a terrific amount of punishment but was game to the end which came with 11 seconds to go in the 12th and final round when the referee waived it off. Indeed, Diaz, who was knocked down four times and had a point deducted for kidney punches, had many good moments in the entertaining bout. One would be hard-pressed to name another one-sided fight that was as competitive, as ridiculous as that sounds.

Co-Feature

Brooklyn knockout artist Edgar Berlanga went beyond the opening round for the first time in his career and was extended the full distance by Demond Nicholson, but Berlanga scored four knockdowns and  won the 8-round super middleweight bout by a lopsided margin.

Berlanga (17-0, 16 KOs) scored knockdowns in rounds two, three, five, and eight with the final knockdown, the harshest of the four – a thunderous right hand that sent Nicholson (23-4-1)  flying back, landing on the seat of his pants — coming inside the final 10 seconds of the final round, too late for Berlanga to finish him off. Nicholson spent most of the fight with his back against the ropes, but it wasn’t a shutout. Each of the three judges saw fit to give him one round.

Other Bouts

In a ho-hum, 10-round junior welterweight fight, 22-year-old Bronx southpaw Josue Vargas improved to 19-1 with a 10-round unanimous decision over Oakland’s Willie Shaw (13-3). Shaw came out strong and won the opening round, but Vargas kept his composure and class prevailed. The scores were 98-92 and 99-91 twice. The lone blemish on Vargas’s ledger came when he was by disqualified for hitting an opponent whose back was turned, but he needs to improve his punching power to reach the next level. He was extended the 10-round distance for the fourth straight time.

The 8-round lightweight contest between Jamaine Ortiz and Joseph Adorno shaped up as the best fight of the night notwithstanding the fact that Ortiz was a consensus 3/1 favorite. Both fighters had strong amateur pedigrees, both were undefeated, and each was at the same stage of his career.

The fight was a see-saw battle, hugely entertaining, and when the smoke cleared both men were still undefeated. Adorno scored two knockdowns, the first with a left hook in round two and the second a left uppercut in round seven that was properly ruled a knockdown although the ropes kept Ortiz from falling. However, Ortiz out-worked Adorno and was fresher at the finish even though he was more marked-up. The scores were 77-75 Ortiz and 76-76 twice.

A union carpenter from Worcester, MA, Ortiz is now 14-0-1. Adorno, from Allentown, PA, incurred his second straight draw, adjusting his record to 14-0-2. It was the first outing in 15 months for Adorno who had two fights fall out last year, one of which was his own fault when he failed to make weight.

In a battle of southpaws, Puerto Rican featherweight Orlando Ruiz improved to 17-0 with an 8-round unanimous decision over Fort Worth’s hard-trying Juan Antonio Lopez (15-9). The scores were 78-74 and 79-73 twice.

Puerto Rico-born welterweight phenom Xander Zayas, the youngest boxer to ever sign a pro contract with Top Rank, blew out Demarcus Layton in the opening round in his most impressive showing to date. Zayas (8-0, 6 KOs) hurt Layton early in the bout with a left hook as they were trading punches and put him down hard with another left hook that induced the referee to waive it off. It was all over in 56 seconds. Layton, from Little Rock, was 8-1-1 heading in.

Super bantamweight Jeremy Adorno, the younger brother of Joseph Adorno, improved to 5-0 (1) with a 4-round majority decision over Hurst, Texas campaigner Ramiro Martinez (2-1-1).

Photo credit: Mikey Williams / Top Rank via Getty Images

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