By Jim Dower: Junior middleweight contender Deandre Latimore (22-3, 17 KO’s) defeated Milton Nunex (23-3-1, 21 Ko’s) by a 10 round majority decision on Friday night at the Hard Rock Hotel and Casino, in Las Vegas, Nevada. The final judges’ scores were 94-94, 96-92 and 96-92.

The big hitting 24-year-old Nunez fell behind early in the fight and needed to claw his way back, dropping Latimore in the 9th and 10th rounds to make the scores closer. However, ultimately, Nunez had given away too many of the early rounds for him to come back and win the fight. Nunez has now lost three out of his last five fights. Latimore, #11 IBF, has won his last three fights since suffering a defeat to Sechew Powell in March 2010.

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Undefeated welterweight Jessie Vargas (18-0, 9 Ko’s) may have earned his way a shot on the May 5th Floyd Mayweather Jr. vs. Miguel Cotto undercard by beating Lanardo Tyner (25-7-2, 15 KO’s) by a 10 round unanimous decision. The final judges’ scores were 99-91, 99-91 and 99-91. Vargas was the busier fighter and landed some good shots throughout. However, his defensive skills were really lacking and he doesn’t punch hard enough. He’s going to need more power to beat the better fighters in the division. Both Vargas and Tyner were hurt from low blows in the fight.

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Undefeated welterweight prospect Antonio Orozsco (13-0, 9 KO’s) defeated Rodolfo Armenta (11-6-1) by a 4th round TKO. Orozsco dropped Armenta with a left to the head causing the referee to step in and halt the fight at 1:09 of the round.