Jaime Munguia UD-12 Gabriel Rosado (118-110, 119-109, 117-111)
Jaime Munguia and Gabriel Rosado were expected to put on a fun fight in tonight’s DAZN main event and did exactly that as they battled it out over 12 rounds of action. In the end Jaime Munguia took a unanimous decision on official scores of 118-108, 119-109, and 117-111. BLH scored the fight 119-109 for Munguia but despite those wide scores, the fight was a good one to watch.
Munguia (38-0, 30 KOs) started out fast and his pace and combination punching really proved to be the difference. Rosado (26-14-1, 15 KOs) would be game every step of the way, but he found himself covering up too much as Munguia unloaded lengthy barrages of punches, and even when Rosado could respond with a counter, that wouldn’t stop Munguia from pouring on even more offense. Rosado would have some moments where he clearly stung Munguia with some punches, but he was never able to capitalize enough to swing the momentum in his favor.
In the post-fight interview Munguia would credit Rosado as being his most difficult opponent to date, but said he was able to make some adjustments to continue his success. Munguia also said he was a bit surprised with how many clean punches Rosado was able to take throughout the fight, but said Rosado is a tough veteran with experience. Going forward, though, Munguia said he’s ready to contend for either a world title or an eliminator bout in the coming year. Asked about a potential fight against Gennadiy Golovkin, Munguia said that’s a fight he’s excited about looking ahead.
When Rosado was interviewed he said he believed the scorecards were too wide and that he never had a chance. I won’t jump on Rosado too much for that statement though, considering Rosado’s a proud fighter in the heat of the moment, but the scores seemed to be quite fair all things considered.
Alexis Rocha TKO-9 Jeovanis Barraza (0:33)
In the co-featured bout, welterweight Alexis Rocha (18-1, 12 KOs) dominated Jeovanis Barraza (23-2, 15 KOs), starting quickly in the fight and continually pouring on the pressure and doing increasing damage along the way. Rocha quite honestly put on a great performance as he methodically broke down Barraza with well placed head and body shots in combination before the referee was ultimately forced to intervene in the ninth round after Barraza had taken a hellacious beating.
Up until that point it was all one-way traffic, with Rocha working at a measured pace and landing at will with any punch he wanted. Barraza was tough to last as long as he did, but we started to enter dangerous territory when Rocha was taking power shots at an uncomfortable fight. With the good looking win Rocha could be right back in the mix after his only professional defeat.
D’Mitrius Ballard UD-10 Paul Valenzuela Jr (98-92, 98-92, 98-92)
In a 10-round middleweight bout D’Mitrius Ballard won a decision in a much tougher than expected fight against Paul Valenzuela Jr. Ballard was coming into this fight off a two year layoff and clearly struggled against the awkward style of Valenzuela who was content to muck up the action and take advantage in spots.
Ballard managed to stay consistent in his approach, however, and eventually started to wear on Valenzuela with numerous body shots. Valenzuela was happy to put on a show of bravado for the fans, but that in itself wasn’t enough to win enough rounds. Official judges turned in identical scores of 98-92 in favor of Ballard, who might’ve won but didn’t much impress in this showing.
William Zepeda TKO-4 John Moralde (1:59)
In the DAZN opener lightweight William Zepeda (24-0, 22 KOs) rolled, completely dominating an overmatched John Moralde (24-5, 14 KOs) en route to a fourth round stoppage. Zepeda came out early throwing both hands and it quickly became clear that Moralde had little to offer by way of resistance, and mostly had to resort to fighting as defensively as possible for as long as the fight lasted.
In the fourth round Moralde was clearly hampered by the numerous body shots he had taken, and under a relentless assault by Zepeda, Moralde literally turned his back on the fight, forcing the referee to wave off the bout at the 1:59 minute mark.