WBO #4, WBC #8, IBF #12 Arnold Barboza Jr. (28-0, 10 KOs) hammered out a tough, gritty ten round unanimous decision against former two-weight world champion and currently rated WBO #9 Jose “Sniper” Pedraza (29-5-1, 14 KOs) in the Navarrete-Wilson co-feature on Friday night at Desert Diamond Arena in Glendale, Arizona. Judges had Barboza prevailing 97-93, 96-94, 96-94.
Unbeaten heavyweight Richard Torrez Jr. (5-0, 5 KOs), who captured a silver medal for Team USA at the Tokyo Olympics, scored a first round TKO over James Bryant (6-3, 4 KOs). Torrez dropped Bryant with an uppercut at the end of round one and Bryant didn’t out for round two.
Unbeaten junior lightweight Andres “Savage” Cortes (19-0, 10 KOs) scored a ten round unanimous decision over Luis Melendez (17-3, 13 KOs). Cortes overcame a bad cut over his left eye for the last five rounds to win by scores of 100-90 3x.
Undefeated middleweight prospect Nico Ali Walsh (8-0, 5 KOs), grandson of Muhammad Ali, outscored Eduardo Ayala (9-3-1, 3 KOs) in a six-rounder. Walsh dropped Ayala in round two and dominated the fight after that. Scores were 60-53, 59-54, 59-54.
Unbeaten 2016 Olympian junior welterweight Lindolfo Delgado (17-0, 13 KOs) won an eight round unanimous decision over Clarence Booth (21-7, 13 KOs). Delgado dropped Booth in the final round to punctuate an 80-71, 79-72, 79-72 win.
In a four-round lightweight clash, Emiliano “El General” Vargas (2-0, 2 KOs), son of former junior middleweight champion Fernando Vargas, outpointed southpaw Francisco Duque (1-1) by scores of 40-36 3x.
Hearing Bradley talking up Ali Walsh is amusing
thats because they all have become “company” men they do what they are told
It’ll be interesting to see what they do with Torrez. I think he’ll end up being pretty good, but he’s probably too small to compete with big and skilled heavyweights. Torrez – Babic maybe fun someday.
Zero shot—He’s too small for this era of Heavyweights
Great win by Barboza. He is a good all-around fighter but doesn’t excel at any one facet of the sport. He has good technique, is economical in his moves, and doesn’t waste any energy in the ring. Pedraza was a really good test and he did pass it although his technique was starting to unravel in the last two rounds. He was starting to loop his shots and was slugging it out instead of boxing. Good thing the fight was for 10 rounds and not 12.
Pedraza was a little too bouncy in the early rounds and rarely set himself to punch. He slowed down that jittery movement and started landing some solid body and head shots. His experience was really starting to show in the second half of the fight. Barboza clearly won the fight but it wasn’t easy.
I’d like to see Barboza against Teofimo Lopez. He possesses the calmness and patience needed to outbox Lopez over the 12 round distance. Lopez is just too emotional in his fights and seems to lack the discipline to maximize his physical skills. This fight against Pedraza could only help Barboza in future fights. I look forward to seeing him against Lopez or any other top 140 pounder.
I would like to see Barboza versus Teofimo as well. As erratic as Teofimo is I think he stops Barboza, unless his defense improves drastically over what I saw last night.
Torres is exciting but unbelievably limited. He is going to end up face down soon.
Seen the replays on ESPN and it looked hilarious
Bradley sounds ridiculous. First he said Pedraza needs a knockout to beat Barboza in the fifth round of a 10rd fight. Then in the main event after the second rd said that Wilson would get stopped in the third rd when there was absolutely nothing indicative of him breaking down. I’m glad we have another experienced boxer in Ward who can fix up his bs.