NEW YORK – Michel Rivera remained unbeaten Saturday night and kept himself in position to land a lightweight title shot.
The Dominican contender was busier and better than Jerry Perez throughout an eight-round bout Rivera won by unanimous decision on the Deontay Wilder-Robert Helenius undercard at Barclays Center in Brooklyn. Judges Ken Ezzo (79-72), John McKaie (80-71) and Ron Paolillo (79-72) all scored their fight for Rivera by large margins.
Santo Domingo’s Rivera (24-0, 14 KOs) dropped Perez toward the end of the eighth round, but Perez reached his feet and made it to the final bell.
Perez (14-2, 11 KOs), of Oak Hills, California, has lost two of his past three fights. Frank Martin (16-0, 12 KOs), a southpaw from Indianapolis, knocked out Perez in the seventh round of their April 2021 bout at Shrine Auditorium & Expo Hall in Los Angeles.
Other than the aforementioned knockdown late in the final round, the seventh and eighth rounds resembled the first six, in that Rivera was mostly more active and accurate with his punches.
Rivera assertively backed Perez into the ropes 40 seconds into the sixth round and landed several right hands that forced Perez to move away from him. Perez let his hands go later in the sixth round, but he couldn’t catch Rivera with any significant shots.
Rivera blasted Perez with a right uppercut that snapped his head back in the middle minute of the fourth round. An aggressive Rivera continued to catch Perez with head and body blows during a third round in which Perez again had difficulty mounting much offense.
Rivera was much more active and accurate throughout the second round, which made Perez cover up at times. Rivera also defended himself well in those three minutes, mostly from Perez’s jab attempts.
Rivera, who mostly worked off his jab during the first round, landed a hard left to Perez’s body with just under 1:20 to go in the opening round.
Keith Idec is a senior writer/columnist for BoxingScene.com. He can be reached on Twitter @Idecboxing.