By Francisco Salazar

Carson, California - In a battle of undefeated featherweights, Abraham Lopez (21-0-1, 15KOs) shocked Julian Ramirez (16-1, 8KOs) with a ten round unanimous decision. The scores were 97-93, 97-93, 98-92.

 The action was hot and heavy from the very first round with both fighters having their moments with big shots landing. During the fifth round, there was a lot of swelling above the right eye of Ramirez. During the sixth round, an accident clash of heads opened up a big cut above the right eye of Ramirez. While the referee called it a clash of heads when Ramirez pulled Lopez into a clinch.

As the fight continued, Ramirez was edging out the rounds with a better workrate and more accurate punching to outhustle Lopez in the majority of the rounds. The judges favored Ramirez, even thought Lopez corner had asked him to get a knockout in the final round because they felt he was behind on the cards. The HBO broadcast team had Ramirez way up in the fight,

ON THE UNDERCARD

Middleweight contender Gabriel Rosado survived a knockdown to win a hard-fought 10 round unanimous decision over Antonio Gutierrez on the non-televised portion of the Golden Boy Promotions card.

Rosado improves to 23-9 1 NC, 13 KOs, while Gutierrez drops to 20-2-1, 9 KOs.

Both fighters came out firing from the opening bell, creating a great ebb and flow between the two. Both fighters had their moments in the third round, each connecting with right hands to the head.

Gutierrez dropped Rosado with a right cross to open the fourth round. Rosado was able to recover, taking the fight to Gutierrez. Both fighters unloaded in the final moments of the round.

The pace began to slow in the during the middle rounds. That favored Rosado, who began landing more with overhand rights to the head of of Gutierrez.

Both fighters had their moments but Rosado seemed to the be the fresher fighter of the two as the bout concluded.

All three judges scored the bout in favor of Rosado, 95-94, 95-94, and 96-93.

 “I was hoping this fight would go a little differently,” said “King” Gabriel Rosado. “I wasn’t expecting to get knocked down. I know that I was making some mistakes in my rounds, and he was coming at me really hard. I know that I have a lot of support out here. This was a learning experience for me — despite my flaws, I was able to get back up and take this victory.”

“I had studied Rosado before this fight, and knew he was a fighter with great ability and punching power,” said Antonio “Tony” Gutierrez. “This has been the most difficult fight of my career thus far, but I feel that I was very impressive and dominated many of the rounds tonight. When I dropped him in the fourth round, I was surprised because I was just doing what my corner advised. And it worked. I don’t agree with the decision. I feel I gave the better fight tonight, and the crowd agrees with me.”

Lightweight Christian Gonzalez won an eight round unanimous decision over Jhon Gemino. Gonzalez (14-0, 12 KOs) pressed the attack throughout most of the fight, walking Gemino down towards the ropes. Gemino (12-7-1, 6 KOs) found some success slipping and countering Gonzalez, but that was few and far in between Gonzalez's assertive and consistent attack. All three judges scored the bout in favor of Gonzalez, 80-72, 80-72, and 79-73. 

Junior lightweight Nick Arce won a six round unanimous decision over Francisco Dominguez. Arce (8-0, 6 KOs) landed the more-telling blows throughout the fight. Both fighters let their hands go more in the second half of the fight, but Arce continued to outland Dominguez (8-10, 2 KOs) at a two to one clip. All three judges scored the bout 60-54 in favor of Arce.

Junior welterweight Jonathan Navarro stopped Marc Torres in the second round. Torres (4-2, 1 KO) brought the fight to Navarro, scoring with hooks and crosses. Navarro (6-0, 5 KOs) was able to impose his size and strength on the smaller Torres, landing vicious hooks and crosses of his own. A barrage of punches eventually dropped Torres at the end of the first round. While Torres tried to fight back, Navarro's punches began taking their toll. A left uppercut dropped Torres again, this time in the second round. Referee Jack Reiss waved the fight off at 1:21. 

Former amateur standout and welterweight Alexis Rocha won a four round unanimous decision over Anthony Woods. The southpaw Rocha (3-0, 2 KOs), who is the younger brother of featherweight contender Ronny Rios, was the busier and more-accurate puncher throughout the fight. He stunned Woods (0-5) a couple of times in the final round, but was unable to put him away. All three judges scored the bout 40-36 in favor of Rocha.

Lightweight Genaro Gamez (2-0, 2 KOs) knocked out Juan Bryand in the first round. A left hook to the body dropped Bryand to one knee. Referee Jack Reiss counted Bryand out at 1:36.

In the opening bout of the Golden Boy Promotions card, lightweight Oscar Duarte (5-0, 2 KOs) won a four round unanimous decision over Luis Lizarraga (5-9-1, 2 KOs). Duarte scored a knockdown in the fourth round in route to winning by scores of 40-35 on all three judges' scorecards.

Francisco A. Salazar has written for Boxingscene.com since September of 2012 and has covered boxing in Southern California and abroad since 2000. Francisco also covers boxing for the Ventura County (CA) Star newspaper, RingTV, and Knockout Nation. He can be reached by email at santio89@yahoo.com or on Twitter at FSalazarBoxing