Jake Paul (12-1, 7 KOs) overcame a late surge from former WBC middleweight champion Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. (54-7-1, 34 KOs) to win a 10-round unanimous decision in a cruiserweight fight on Saturday night at the Honda Center in Anaheim, California.
The fight was a lot closer than the scores turned in by the judges. They scored it:
– 99-91
– 97-93
– 98-92
Paul gassed out after five rounds, allowing Chavez Jr. to come on strong to appear to dominate four of the last five rounds. I say, ‘appear,’ because the judges didn’t give him any credit for landing the harder, cleaner shots against an exhausted and hurt Paul.
Results
– Gilberto ‘Zurdo’ Ramirez (48-1, 30 KOs) held onto his WBA and WBO cruiserweight titles with a 12-round unanimous decision win over Yuniel Dorticos (27-3, 25 KOs) in the chief support bout. The referee penalized Dorticos, 39, a point for a low blow in round ten. The scores were 115-112, 115-112, and 117-111.
Dorticos landed the better shots and was the far more active fighter through the first six rounds. It was impossible to give Ramirez any of those rounds. In the second half, Ramirez was more active, fighting on the inside. However, the rounds were still very close, and could have gone for Dorticos due to the pressure he was applying.
Although the Cuban Dorticos faded in the last five rounds, he was still punching harder than Ramirez. Dorticos appeared to win 9-3 in rounds, but he was the B-side. For him to have been given the decision, he’d have had to score a couple of knockdowns.
– Raul Curiel (16-0-1, 14 KOs) scored a fourth-round knockout of Victor Ezequiel Rodriguez (16-1-1, 9 KOs). Curiel, 29, dropped Rodriguez with a nose-crunching right uppercut. When he got back up, Curiel pounced on him and finished him off with a flurry, causing the referee, Michael Margado, to halt the fight. The time of the stoppage was 2:09 of round four.
Rodriguez’s face immediately began to swell from his injured nose when he got back to his feet. He’d backed up against the ropes, bending forward while covering up in what looked like an act of surrender.
Punch stats
- Raul Curiel: 56 of 113 punches thrown for a 50% rate
- Victor Ezequiel Rodríguez: 47 of 168 shots for 28%
– Julian Rodriguez (24-1, 15 KOs) knocked out previously unbeaten Avious Griffin (17-1, 16 KOs) in the final round of their ten-round welterweight contest. The lanky 6’0″ Griffin got reckless, trying to score a come-from-behind KO, and paid for it by getting dropped by a hard hook from Rodriguez. Blood was gushing out of Griffin’s nose as he lay face down on the canvas. He looked out of it when he finally got up.
Griffin had knocked Rodriquez down in the eighth, but he still appeared to be trailing going into the tenth.
Final punch stats
- Julian Rodriguez: 92 of 223 punches thrown for 41%
- Avious Griffin: 94 of 342 shots for 27%
– Floyd Schofield (19-0, 13 KOs) caught Tevin Farmer (33-9-1, 8 KOs), knocking him out in the first round of their scheduled ten-round lightweight contest. Schofield, 22, caught Farmer with a looping right hand to the head moments into the fight. In a follow-up barrage, Schofield dropped the former IBF super bantamweight champion Farmer a second time.
Farmer let the referee, Gerald White, know that he was okay, but he didn’t look it. When the action resumed, Schofield pounced on his wounded prey, nailing him with several hard punches, prompting the referee to step in and halt the fight. The time of the stoppage was at 1:18 of round one.
Wow! This wasn’t supposed to happen, as Schofield had never shown the kind of talent to defeat a fighter of Farmer’s experience like what we saw tonight. The only thing you can say to explain this is maybe the two grueling fights that Farmer had in losses to William Zepeda took something out of him, leaving him as the burned-out husk that we saw tonight.
– Holly Holm (34-2-3, 9 KOs) returned to the boxing ring after a 12-year break to defeat Yolanda Guadalupe Vega Ochoa (10-1, 1 KOs) by a one-sided 10-round unanimous decision in a lightweight fight. The 43-year-old Holm used movement and quick shots to dominate the fight. From the seventh round, she was more stationary, landing repeated left hands down the pipe to the head of Vegas. The scores were 100-90, 100-90, and 100-90.
– Joel Iriarte (8-0, 7 KOs) was forced to go the eight-round distance, defeating journeyman Kevin Johnson (12-7, 8 KOs) by a wide unanimous decision in a welterweight fight. The lanky 6’1″ Iriate surprisingly didn’t use his height and reach advantage.
Instead, he chose to fight on the inside, using a lot of mauling to keep Johnson, 32, pinned to the ropes in the entire fight. It made the contest boring to watch because there was very little separation. The judges scored it 78-74, 80-72, and 79-74
– Alexander Gueche (8-0, 5 KOs) outclassed Vincent Avina (8-2-1, 7 KOs), winning a wide eight-round unanimous decision in a bantamweight fight. The scores were 80-72, 80-72, and 79-73.
– 2024 U.S Olympian Joshua Edwards (3-0, 3 KOs) scored a first-round knockout win over Dominicc Hardy (6-4, 4 KOs). Edwards, 25, connected with a hard lead right hand that folded Hardy, sending him down flat on his back. The referee, David Hartman, stopped the fight when Hardy, 35, staggered after getting to his feet. The time of the stoppage was at 1:03 of round one. With the way Hardy’s right leg folded back as he fell, it was clear he wasn’t going to be able to continue.
– Rene Alvarado (35-16, 22 KOs) used nonstop Zepeda-esque pressure to dominate previously unbeaten Victor Morales (20-1-1, 10 KOs) in a lopsided 10-round unanimous decision in super featherweight action. The scores were 96-94, 99-91, and 99-91. Boxing News scored it 10 rounds to zero for the talented Nicaraguan Alvarado.
You could tell early on that Morales was going to be in for a long night when Alvarado hit him with four rapid-fire left hooks to the body in the second round. From there, it got worse with Alvarado stalking the chunky-looking Morales around the ring, hitting him with body shots and speedy combinations to the head.
In the sixth round, Morales suffered a cut over his left eye from the constant barrage of punches Alvarado was hitting him with. Morales took a lot of headshots in the seventh round and was retreating all around the ring, trying to escape the pressure from Alvarado. After the round ended, the referee went to Morales’ corner and let him know that he’d taken a lot of punches in that round.
– John ‘Scrappy’ Ramirez (15-1, 9 KOs) outslugged veteran Josue Jesus Morales (33-19-5, 14 KOs), winning a wide eight-round unanimous decision in a super flyweight contest in the first fight of the prelim card. The scores were 79-73, 80-72, and 80-72.
