In the main event, Joshua Franco dominated the second half of the fight and surprised favored Australian Andrew Moloney via a unanimous decision to take away Moloney's minor junior bantamweight title and his undefeated record in Las Vegas.
Franco knocked down Moloney in the eleventh round and an argument could have been made to stop the fight to save a badly hurt Moloney.
Moloney showed plenty of heart in surviving the round and his best round in the second half was the final round, which could have been scored for him.
I had Franco a 116-111 winner (8-4 and a knockdown), but the fight was much closer on the official scorecards with two judges scoring for Franco 114-113.
Had Franco not scored the eleventh round knockdown, the fight would have been scored a majority decision draw, which would have brought the Hamburglar out from his grill to complain about the decision!
Moloney was taken to the hospital following the fight and was diagnosed with both eardrums busted, but showed enough in defeat to not write him off as a future contender in the division.
As for Franco, who entered this fight after three terrific fights against Oscar Negrete (and a KO of Juan Burgos), which he won a split decision with the other two ending in draws, he looks like he'll be at least be a solid contender, if not a long-term champion in a division that is very solid at the top.
I'd love to see am eventual title defense in a fourth bout against Negrete, who was scheduled to fight the other Moloney (Jason) on Thursday but was found to have a detached retina in his checkup entering the fight.
It'll be interesting to see how Franco fares in his next few fights, but at minimum Franco will make solid action fights and he could develop into a top fighter in the division with some luck.
Christopher Diaz won a unanimous decision in the co-main event over Jason Sanchez in a crossroads fight between two fighters that entered the fight in desperate need of a win.
Diaz looked like the fighter that was favored to win a vacant world title against Masayuki Ito before losing an upset decision and landed the more powerful punches against Sanchez, who threw more punches but landed less in defeat.
I scored Diaz a 98-92 winner, which was the same as two of the judges, and while Diaz called for a world title fight after the win, I'd like to see another solid victory or two before that shot.
I would think that Diaz should get that title try with those wins as Top Rank is well situated in the featherweight division, although I see no point in a rematch with WBO champion Shakur Stevenson.
However, Diaz could be in the mix to possibly fight for the title vacated by Stevenson, should he do so in the future which he has been rumored to be considering.
Ramon Malpica earned two points for the Diaz victory to my zero and trimmed my boxing challenge lead to five at 53-48.
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