Jose Pedraza and Richard Commey came into tonight’s ESPN main event from Tulsa, Okla., both needing a win, and when all was said and done, neither of them got it.
Pedraza and Commey fought to a split draw in the 10-round bout at 140 lbs, with Pedraza winning one card 97-93, Commey taking another 96-94, and the third judge scoring it 95-95.
Bad Left Hook’s unofficial card was 96-94 in Pedraza’s favor, but the draw outcome really isn’t a bad one. It was a competitive fight where both veteran fighters had their moments, and also had some rough rounds and even rough stretches.
Pedraza (29-4-1, 14 KO) looked sharp in the opening round, but may have been buzzed a bit in the second by Commey (30-4-1, 27 KO), as Pedraza started looking a little more comfortable staying stationary and trading than he probably should have. That gave Commey what looked like a good run through the fourth round, but then Pedraza came back into it.
Down the stretch of the fight, Pedraza had a dominant ninth round, but the eighth and ninth were both pretty close, though the eighth was tough to score for Pedraza simply because he almost took the round off. Pedraza did some good work to the body especially, which seemed to have a real impact on Commey, who was looking pretty gassed out in the final couple rounds.
For what it’s worth, CompuBox saw Pedraza land 165 of 496 (33.3%) of his total punches, and 134 of 291 (46%) of his power punches, while Commey connected on 149 of 684 (21.8%) of his total punches, and 130 of 377 (34.5%) of his power shots. Pedraza won the jab battle, 31-19, and dominated in the body shots, out-landing Commey 78-19.
Jared Anderson KO-2 Miljan Rovcanin
Rovcanin (24-3, 16 KO) came in with a record that made it seem like Anderson (12-0, 12 KO) was taking a step-up fight, but he wasn’t; take more than a glance at Rovcanin’s record and it’s empty as hell, the man came in ranked No. 293 in the world by BoxRec, Anderson was already at No. 53.
Those who prepared for the mismatch got it as soon as Anderson decided to put his foot on the gas late in the second round. Once he was throwing for real, Rovcanin couldn’t do anything about it.
Anderson deserved a point off earlier in round two for blatantly fouling Rovcanin coming out of a break. It wouldn’t have made a difference, and I don’t want to see referees get too involved generally, but that’s where you should take a point, I don’t care if he’s the star prospect.
Richard Torrez KO-1 Marco Antonio Canedo
This was a frightening knockout, as Torrez (3-0, 3 KO) came out to be aggressive and do damage, and, well, he did that very quickly. Canedo (4-3, 2 KO) was down once, and being real, Torrez hit him late a couple times there. The referee let that go. Canedo was quickly and viciously dropped a second time, and Canedo was hit on the way down there — not the same thing, not suggesting it is, but he was out cold and then ate two more shots falling.
I’m not harping on the referee or whatever, the shots on both were heat of the moment, in the middle of throwing, it happens. What I am saying is this: There’s no reason to put Torrez, a 23-year-old man and Olympic silver medalist, in another matchup like this. I’m not saying put him in with contenders, I’m saying put him in with halfway competent opponents in the top 200. He learns nothing and gains nothing from fighting guys like this. He’s not a novice teenager.