By Miguel Maravilla at ringside
In a rematch of their 2019 battle, former two-division world champion Oscar Valdez (31-1, 23 KOs) dominated Adam “BluNose” Lopez (16-5, 6 KOs) over ten rounds in the Haney-Loma co-feature on Saturday night at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas. Valdez stalked Lopez and landed the harder shots. Valdez nearly stopped Lopez in round ten. Scores were 98-92, 98-91, 97-93. After the fight, Valdez called out WBO super featherweight champion Emmanuel Navarrete.
WBO #12 lightweight Raymond “Danger” Muratalla (18-0, 15 KOs) of Fontana scored a spectacular second round stoppage over Jeremia Nakathila (23-3, 19 KOs) of Namibia in opening the pay per view telecast. After a slow first round, Muratalla finished off Nakathila in round two, rocking him with a hard right hand, then finishing him off in a corner with a series of unanswered punches. Referee Robert Hoyle stopped the fight at 2:48. Afterward, Muratalla said he wants Devin Haney.
Muhammad Ali’s grandson, middleweight prospect Nico Ali Walsh (8-0-1, 5 KOs), and Danny Rosenberger (13-9-5, 4 KOs) fought to an eight round draw. Rosenberger gave Ali Walsh a tough task. He boxed much of the fight moving side to side while Ali Walsh did what he could to neutralize Rosenberger’s movement. Judges scored the bout 77-75 for Ali Walsh, 77-75 for Rosenberg, and 76-76.
Lightweight Emiliano Fernando Vargas (5-0, 4 KOs), the son of former world champion Fernando “El Feroz” Vargas, scored a second round knockout over Rafael Jasso (3-1, 1 KO). A hard crunching left hook to the body by Vargas did it as Jasso went down and the referee reached a ten count at 1:41.
Las Vegas junior featherweight prospect Floyd “Cashflow” Diaz (9-0, 3 KOs) won a unanimous decision over Luis Saavedra (9-9, 3 KO’s) of San Luis Potosi, Mexico. Off to a fast start, Diaz and Saavedra mixed it up in the opening round.
Saavedra stalked and pressed in round two as Diaz fought off his back foot countering. Working on the inside in the third, Saavedra took it to Diaz stalking staying on top of Floyd. Continuing to go at Diaz in the fourth, Saavedra was not making it easy for Floyd by cutting the ring and swinging wildly. In the fifth, a nasty cut began to develop on Saavedra’s right eye but he continued to go forward as Diaz continued to box away. The cut appeared to be sustained in round six as Saavedra kept coming, forcing Diaz to keep his distance and box. Displaying his relentless in the seventh round, the cut and bleeding was not stopping Saavedra from coming forward as he kept Diaz boxing and fighting at distance. The eighth and final round saw Diaz work off the jab but the stalking and wild swinging Saavedra kept coming and staying on top of Floyd to the final bell. Despite being bloodied Saavedra finished strong. The judges scored the bout 80-72, 80-72, and 79-73 all three in favor of Diaz.
Cleveland lightweight prospect Abdullah Mason (8-0, 7 KOs) stopped Desmond Lyons (8-3, 2 KOs) in six. Displaying hand speed and flash in the opening round, Mason got off to a get start snapping the jab and following up with the straight left backing Lyons. Working patiently and countering in round two, Mason connected with a solid left uppercut as he stopped Lyons from pressing and getting inside. Mason continued to outwork Lyons as he began to go downstairs to the body and in the fifth Mason cornered Lyons. Referee Robert Hoyle had seen enough after Mason had outworked Lyons and connected with a series of punches stopping the fight at 32 seconds of the sixth and final round.
In the opening bout from the MGM Grand in Las Vegas middleweight Amari Jones (9-0, 8 KOs) Oakland scored a sixth round stoppage over Chino Hill (8-3-1, 6 KO’s) of Davenport, Iowa. Jones took it to Hill from the opening bell and in round two, the Oakland native began to unload . In the third, Jones kept working backing Hill and beating him to the punch. It was all Jones throughout the fight, in the sixth and final round referee Mike Ortega had seen enough as he stepped in to stop the fight at 1:16 of the sixth.
Emiliano Vargas won his by 2nd round KO, excellent offensive, for this young Vargas, I wish he will learn some defensive skills, as his competitors get tougher El General will need to add defense to his arsenal. He won’t be to KO everyone and he will last longer
Agree, he’s going in there very recklessness sooner or later he’s getting KO
He won’t be able to KO…
Guess that didn’t go to plan for Nico, couldn’t even beat a hand picked tomato can
Rosenberger messed up his record early, and has been on a winning streak. He’s better than his record looks on paper.
I remember watching Ali-Walsh take right hand after right hand a few fights ago and seeing that he had some serious defensive flaws. It actually looked like he had gotten better over his past two or three, but I guess that may’ve been due to the quality of his opposition. It looked really rough tonight albeit against a pretty tricky opponent.
Nico struggled with poor defence getting bang up by a guy he was supposed to dispose of early! The name Ali has too much weight for him to carry.
That was one nasty punch!
Ali Walsh better work out his defensive issues or somebody will knock him out with a real deal right hand or an evil uppercut.
Muratalla stopped too quick in my opinion. Feel announcers are trying to sell this guy. He might be good but it was early and there had been no knockdowns. Nakathila had not been hurt previously in the fight. Nothing wrong with actually seeing if a guy gets knocked down or out when it is early like that. On the flip side the Maloney fight likely went too long!
You know damn well if Andre Ward or Tim Bradley had a ref stop one of their fights if they were in that situation they would still be crying about it until this day.
ESPN in general is just terrible. They just manufacture stories and now they are manufacturing fighters. This is soley to hype up an easy opponent for Loma, Haney or Stevenson.
They have to manufacture hype because they are extremely limited in possible opponents because of how fractured boxing is with PBC, Top Rank, Golden Boy ect refusing to work together unless it’s a huge fight like Garcia vs Davis.
It bothers me that the announcers never even discussed that it may have been early. The previous fight with Maloney was brutal and yet this fight gets stopped after a 10 second furry and no one even questions it? I feel like they are trying to sell this guy and everyone is in on it.
Walk out time. Haney going down.
ESPN giving too much to Haney after five 3- 2 Loma
No excuses. Straight robbery.