In the main event from Las Vegas for Showtime and PBC, lightweight contender Frank Martin used a late rally to escape with a narrow but unanimous decision over Artem Harutyunyan.
Harutyunyan forced Martin's hand a bit with a style that I wouldn't call overly aggressive nor a pure boxing style either, that confused Martin through most of the fight and kept the Texan a step behind.
Martin had his moments, including a big sixth round that saw him stagger Harutyunyan and looked to have the momentum in his direction but Harutyunyan took over instead and had a sizable lead on my card after nine rounds.
Martin's trainer Derrick James thought so too as he exhorted Martin to step up the pace between the ninth and tenth round and Martin responded with some of his best rounds of the fight, sweeping the final three rounds and forcing Harutyunyan to take a knee in the final round.
The knockdown cost Harutyunyan on one scorecard as he would have gotten a draw on one scorecard without it, losing on that 114-113 and on the other two cards 115-112.
I scored Harutyunyan a winner at 114-113 but the fight was very close with several rounds that could have been given to either fighter, so giving Martin the nod is acceptable and reasonable in my opinion.
Still, even in victory, and considering the terrific try by the former Olympic bronze medalist, Harutyunyan, Martin now has some question marks for a potential fight against an elite fighter in the division.
PBC isn't especially strong at 135 pounds, other than Gervonta Davis and maybe Issac Cruz, so it's possible that Martin's outing might make either man more likely to try Martin now than after his dazzling win over Michel Rivera, so this could eventually be a good thing for Martin if he just had a bad night or trouble with a difficult style.
In the co-feature, junior welterweight Elvis Rodriguez scored the biggest win of his career when he stopped former WBC champion Viktor Postol in the seventh round.
The fight was evenly fought through four rounds and Postol was winning the fifth before a Rodriguez right hand late in the round wobbled Postol a bit.
Rodriguez dropped Postol in round six and broke Postol's nose, causing some profuse bleeding.
Postol survived the sixth but Rodriguez poured it on in the seventh with the referee maybe stopping the fight a smidge too soon.
However, Postol wasn't going to turn the fight around and it seemed like a matter of time in any case.
Rodriguez looked much better than he did in his previous fight, a majority decision win over Joseph Adorno, and might be on his way to another improvement in opponent soon.
As for Postol, it was his second loss by stoppage in a row after never having an early loss before and unless he would be satisfied with being a name opponent, might be time to consider retirement.
The other boxing challenge fight was the co-feature from Matchroom/DAZN in Detroit for the pro debut of Olympic gold medalist Andy Cruz, who used his superior skills and speed to dominate trialhorse Juan Carlos Burgos over ten rounds.
Burgos was at one time good enough to fight for a world title and should have won one, drawing against Roman Martinez in a fight he won in my opinion.
But those days are gone and Burgos is just another rugged opponent that good young lightweights face to gain experience with Burgos losing decisions to those fighters as each tries to be the first to stop him.
Cruz was no different than Keyshawn Davis, Mikey Garcia, or Devin Haney, all of who dominated Burgos, and yet couldn't stop him as they settled for dominant unanimous decision victories.
Cruz won every round on two cards and mine at 100-90 as the other card was 98-92 for Cruz, which in its own way is one of the crazier cards this year as I can't find one round for Burgos, no matter how hard I try to.
Cruz is planning on fighting an even better opponent in his second fight and hopes to gain a title fight in his third pro bout.
I'm not sure if that is feasible, especially if Devin Haney stays in the division and holds all four titles but Cruz will have his chances against the better fighters sooner or later and the inevitable fight with Keyshawn Davis, who Cruz defeated multiple times in the amateurs, including for Olympic gold.
Boxing Challenge
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