ONTARIO, California – In a bout that appeared sure for a tense studying of the scorecards, referee Raul Caiz Jr. as an alternative took on the drama all to himself.
Caiz stepped in practically halfway by means of the Tenth and closing spherical of the Saturday night time co-main occasion between Ricardo Sandoval, of Rialto, California, and Puerto Rico’s former junior flyweight champion Angel Acosta, awarding Sandoval a controversial TKO victory at Toyota Area.
“I wasn’t harm,” Acosta stated after getting backed to the ropes by Sandoval’s strain. “It was shot, however I used to be in management and able to preserve preventing. After which, hastily, the ref stopped the struggle.”
In the long run, maybe it didn’t matter as a result of the scorecards had Sandoval successful broadly, 88-83 (Ron Scott Stevens), 89-82 (Alejandro Rochin), 87-84 (George Cruz).
Flyweight Sandoval (25-2) admitted the stoppage, which got here at 1:23 of the Tenth, appeared “a bit of early.”
“I feel I nonetheless would’ve received him out of there,” Sandoval stated earlier than seeing the scorecards. “I feel I used to be successful the struggle. I used to be displaying plenty of protection. He was lacking most of his punches, and I used to be connecting.”
As typically occurs in lighter-weight battles between evenly matched opponents, the bout was a busy, aggressive scrap and void of knockdowns.
Acosta, 33, had advised his coach, Joel Diaz, he ready as if this was his closing struggle, and he and Sandoval engaged in a number of entertaining back-and-forth flurries, with Acosta (24-5) successful the eighth and ninth rounds on Cruz’s scorecard.
However then Sandoval cornered Acosta and landed physique blow, with Acosta turning to change his place when Caiz surged in to cease the struggle.
“I don’t perceive why,” Diaz stated. “[Acosta] was the one pushing the struggle. He was the one being most aggressive. He harm [Sandoval] 3 times and [Caiz] didn’t say something.”
Informed of the scores, Diaz stated, “They’re all the time going to lean to the favored fighter. Acosta put in a lot work. He stated, ‘I’ve received to win.’”
Sandoval stated he’s open to a rematch.
Following his Saturday second-round knockout triumph in a junior light-weight bout, Manuel Flores felt so good that he spoke of returning to bantamweight – the place he final fought in 2021 – to pursue champion Junto Nakatani.
Flores (18-1, 14 KOs) first decked badly chubby (128.8 kilos) opponent Nohel Arambulet (23-7-2) with an overhand proper after which ended the bout with a left uppercut.
“My opponent got here in seven kilos chubby, however I nonetheless needed the struggle. It’s about coronary heart,” Flores stated, giving himself a B+ for the displaying and including, “I’m onerous on myself. It’s important to be your individual hardest critic on this sport.”
He credit sparring in his Indio, California, health club with former unified bantamweight titleholder Murodjon “M.J.” Akhmadaliev for his sharpness, and stated he’s able to struggle once more instantly.
“I didn’t even get touched,” Flores, 25, stated.
Golden Boy’s elite prospect Joel Iriarte of Bakersfield, California, confirmed why the promoter is so excessive on him, unleashing a slew of ill-intentioned proper uppercuts to attain a second-round TKO of Texas’ Yainel Alvarez (3-5-2) in welterweight motion.
Iriarte, 21, moved to 3-0 with three knockouts. The tall, hammer-fisted fighter devoted intensive time to the physique within the first spherical after which elevated his punishment of Alvarez, inflicting referee David Sullivan to cease the struggle 2:41 into the second.
“Studying classes each time I’m within the ring … I’m joyful about it,” Iriarte stated. “I used all of the instruments in my toolbox. Stayed calm, listened to my nook. Affer hurting him, having the ability to use that calm mindset.”
Iriarte took greater than three months off after his final bout to refresh, he stated, and now he needs to struggle month-to-month to shut the 12 months.
“There was nothing holding me again, only a matter of Golden Boy having the area for[me],” he stated. “They’re transferring me proper.”
Mexico fighters received back-to-back bouts to shut the non-DAZN portion of the undercard.
Welterweight Pedro Campa (36-3-1) iced his unanimous determination triumph with a Tenth-round knockdown of Chicago’s Alex Martin (18-6).
Campa received by scores of 97-90, 96-91, 94-93.
And featherweight Gael Cabrera, additionally from Sonora, produced a dream displaying, pulling down his opponent Mychaquell Shields in every spherical, ending him 1:09 into the third spherical on a mixture of physique blows in a impartial nook.
Cabrera (5-0, 3 KOs) first decked Shields (2-5) with a right-handed blow within the first spherical, then despatched him down once more within the second earlier than making use of the ending touches.
Light-weight Joshua Garcia of close by Moreno Valley appeared to have dominated his Filipino opponent, Jason Buenaobra, however emerged with solely a majority determination victory (57-57, 58-56, 59-55).
Garcia (9-0), managed by Oscar De La Hoya’s brother, Joel, impressively and creatively dismantled Buenaobra (10-11-3) by unleashing each punishing physique blows and head pictures, backing him to the ropes within the closing spherical.
Hometown middleweight Anthony Saldivar improved to 7-0 with three knockouts, instantly placing to mattress the theatrics of smiling, free-swinging Roman Canto (15-18-3) of the Philippines.
Canto sought to land a fortunate punch however as an alternative absorbed punishment capped by a flurry of Saldivar blows in Canto’s nook that stopped the bout 54 seconds into the spherical.
Golden Boy light-weight prospect Daniel Luna battered Joseph Walker so totally within the first spherical that referee Caiz waved the bout over with Walker on his stool on the shut of the primary.
Luna (4-1, 4 KOs) was coming off a stunning four-round determination loss to Erick Garcia Benitez in October, however he wasted no time taking the intrigue out of this bout.
A tough left to the top brought about Walked to hunch ahead and attempt to maintain as Luna freed up and landed a gradual barrage, together with a tough right-handed physique blow and a hook to the top. Caiz took look to Walker’s nook and stopped issues simply because the ring card woman stepped in to carry up her Spherical 2 poster.
The afternoon opened with featherweight Japhethlee Llamido (12-1) of Lengthy Seashore, California, posting a one-sided 80-71, 78-73, 77-74 unanimous determination victory over Las Vegas’ Ryan Allen (10-8-1).
