In the final preliminary card bout of the evening, Oswaldo Molina won the battle of the undefeated lightweight prospects as he claimed a unanimous decision victory over Pablo Rubio.
Molina came into the bout with fewer fights to his name, but looked half a step ahead of Rubio throughout their six-round contest. The Mexican’s superior footwork and cleaner work saw him edge the rounds as the bout progressed, though neither man was able to land anything that put the other in any real trouble.
In the end, the 19-year-old looked a cut above his opponent as he claimed a landslide unanimous decision victory. One judge gave the teenager all six rounds, while the other two each gave him five as he moved to 10-0 with a decisive win. Rubio, meanwhile, takes the first L of his career as he drops to 15-1.
Undefeated super middleweight prospect Abel Gonzalez bounced back from the first knockdown of his career as he got off the canvas to claim a unanimous decision victory over Mexico’s Raul Salomon.
Salomon sprung a surprise late in the opening round when he stepped in close and dropped Gonzalez with a clubbing short right over the top. The Mexican vet followed up with a solid round in the second, too.
But from Round 3 onward, Gonzalez began to warm to the task as he pushed the pace, upped his work rate, and started to score consistently while being more defensively responsible against the ropes.
And after eight rounds of keenly contested action, it was Gonzalez’s work that impressed the judges more as he earned scores of 77-74 across the board for a unanimous decision victory, as he improved his perfect professional record to 9-0.
Vlad Panin took his career win tally to 25 with a fourth-round TKO stoppage of the game, but outgunned, Dakota Linger in their super welterweight matchup.
Panin started fast, and nearly earned a first-round stoppage when he hurt Linger to the body, then unloaded a barrage of shots as Linger covered up in the corner. Linger managed to weather the storm and survive the round, though the ringside doctor advised he would be keeping “a close eye on” him after a rough end to the first round.
Panin continued to build up his punch count as the next couple of rounds ticked by. Then, in Round 4, a pair of solid body shots backed Linger away towards the ropes, and Panin unloaded another heavy combination of punches that forced referee Thomas Taylor to step in and wave off the fight to spare Linger further punishment.
It gave Panin his second win under the Zuffa Boxing banner and extended his current knockout streak to four fights as he called for a big step up in competition from the Zuffa Boxing matchmakers next time out.
Former unified 140-pound world champion Jose Ramirez moved up to 147 pounds to take on The Ring’s No. 9-ranked welterweight contender Alexis Rocha, and it produced 10 thrilling rounds of action, with Rocha emerging as the decision victor.
Ramirez’s elite-level experience held sway throughout a well-contested matchup as he established himself in the early rounds. But Rocha started to raise his game to match his more experienced opponent as he took the fight to Ramirez through mid-way point of the fight.
A clash of heads in Round 9 left Rocha busted up and bleeding, and after being checked over by the doctor and deemed good to continue, he came storming back and appeared to drop Ramirez, who contested the knockdown.
It set things up perfectly for the final round, and both men left everything in the ring as they battled to secure the victory. And after the pair battled all the way to the final bell, it was Rocha who earned the decision from the three ringside judges, who returned scores of 98-91, 98-91, 97-92.
The preliminary card opened up with Ryan Garcia’s younger brother Sean, who kicked off the night with a majority decision victory over Abraham Morales in their lightweight matchup.
Garcia showcased some flashy hands and decent hand speed against Morales, who applied constant forward pressure throughout the six-round contest. But that pressure was made to count against the 32-year-old when a smart counter shot from Garcia dropped him late in the third round.
A harsh-looking point deduction for Garcia in the fifth gave Morales some late hope, and he enjoyed his best round of the fight. But, despite that setback, Garcia boxed his way through the final round to secure the majority decision victory on the scorecards, with the judges scoring the bout
56-56, 58-54, 58-54.
