In an example of soft match-making gone wrong by Top Rank, heavyweight contender Jared Anderson (17-0, 15 KOs) labored to a boring 10-round unanimous decision against the obscure former cruiserweight Ryad Merhy (32-3, 26 KOs) on Saturday night at the American Bank Center in Corpus Christi, Texas. The fans booed the fight all night. Both fighters were poor.
The scores were 100-90, 100-90, and 99-91. Merhy showed no interest in throwing punches, and Anderson was too timid and weak to knock him out.
Again, Top Rank dropped the ball with their protective match-making. They’re doing Anderson favors with this kind of match-making.
Undercard results:
Heavyweight fringe contender Efe Ajagba (20-1, 14 KOs) overcame a bad start a terrible finish to edge Guido Vianello (12-2-1, 10 KOs) by a 10 round split decision in the chief support bout.
The scores were 96-94 for Vianello, 96-94 and 96-94 for Ajagba. Vianello hurt Ajagba bad in the second round with a right to the head, and had him close to being stopped after unloading with a barrage of shots at the end of the round.
Ajagba was saved by the bell. After the round ended, a badly hurt Ajagba staggered to the neutral corner and had to be redirected to his corner.
Vianello gassed out after two rounds, and Ajagba was able to come on to appear to win the middle rounds. However, Vianello came on strong in the ninth and tenth and outlanded and outworked Ajagba, who was mostly just clinching.
All in all, it was an interesting fight. Neither of these guys looks destined to win a world title. Ajagba was lucky Vianello wasn’t a bigger puncher because he would have been stopped tonight.
2016 Olympic gold medalist Robson Conceicao (18-2-1, 9 KOs) stopped an overmatched Juan Guardado (15-2-1, 5 KOs) in the seventh round in super featherweight action. Conceicao dropped Guardado twice with body shots to get the stoppage.
The fight was waved off at the 2:27 mark. In the first knockdown, the Brazilian Conceicao landed a left to Guardado’s liver, sending him down in pain on the canvas. Guardado barely beat the count, getting up at nine. Conceicao then landed a left-right to Guardado’s body, sending him down for a second time. The referee then waved it off.
This fight appeared to be a present from Top Rank to Conceicao after he was arguably robbed of a victory in his last fight against WBO super featherweight champion Emanuel Navarrete last November. He appeared to beat Navarrete, but the judges scored it a 12-round draw.
Middleweight prospect Julian Delgado (1-0) defeated Juan Tamez (1-1) by a four-round unanimous decision. The fight was action-packed, with a lot of punches thrown and not much technique from either guy.
The hometown guy, 22-year-old Delgado, got the nod with the scores 40-36, 39-36, and 40-36.
Featherweight contender Ruben Villa (22-1, 7 KOs) outboxed the surprisingly tough Christian Cruz Chacon (22-7-1, 11 KOs), winning a 10-round unanimous decision. The scores were 98-92, 98-92, and 97-93.
Cruz, 27, pressured the highly technical Villa throughout the first half, landing nice shots. Villa applied a lot of pressure down the stretch, wearing Cruz down with his jabs and straight lefts to put him on the retreat. In the tenth, both guys traded nice shots to finish out the fight.
Welterweight prospect John Rincon (9-0, 2 KOs) defeated Yainiel Alvarez (3-4, 1 KOs) by a six-round majority decision. The scores were 57-57, 58-56 and 59-55. The southpaw Rincon landed the cleaner shots with his left hands to the head of the 33-year-old Cuban Alvarez.
In rounds five and six, Alvarez took the fight to Rincon, outworking him with combinations and aggressiveness. However, he’d given away too many earlier rounds to come back.
Alvarez started off the fight with roughhouse tactics, landing rabbit punches in the first and second rounds. In the second, he was warned for hitting Rincon in the back with punches after bending him over.
Lightweight contender Abdullah Mason (13-0, 11 KOs) destroyed Ronal Ron (14-6, 11 KOs) in a fourth-round technical knockout. Mason, 20, unloaded with a barrage of shots in the fourth round, causing referee Lawrence Cole to step in and halt the contest. The time of the stoppage was at 1:02 of round four.
The southpaw Mason knocked Ron down twice in the contest, dropping him in round one with a straight left to the head, and in round three with a hard left to the body.
Super featherweight Alejandro Guerrero (13-4, 10 KOs) defeated Jalen Walker (12-1-1, 10 KOs) by knockout in the seventh round. Walker’s corner threw in the towel in the seventh. The stoppage occurred at 1:35.
Heavyweight prospect Ali Feliz (1-0, 1 KO) stopped Anthony Woodson III (1-2, 1 KO) in the second round at 1:16.