ONTARIO, Calif. – Ricardo Sandoval’s comeback campaign continues.

In just his second fight back after his second career loss, the 24-year-old, Southern California native Sandoval (22-2, 16 KOs) scored a unanimous decision victory against Rocco Santomauro (22-2, 6 KOs) in a flyweight fight. 

Judges awarded Sandoval scores of 98-92, 96-94, and 96-94.

Sandoval stepped forward for the entirety of his ten-round fight, dictated the pace, and got the better of the exchanges. Santomauro showed a solid account of himself boxing off his back foot but didn’t do enough to have the scores slanted more toward his favor. 

The high-octane Sandoval certainly has a skill set that could turn him into a world-title contender should he string together some more successful wins. Sandoval is ranked in the top six by three separate sanctioning bodies (WBC, WBO, WBA) at 112 pounds. 

Sandoval suffered his first career loss last year in a firefight against David Jimenez that arguably could have been scored for Sandoval. The bout was for a WBA flyweight title eliminator, and Jimenez ended up losing to the current title holder, Artem Dalekian, in January. 

The 35-year-old Santomauro was fighting for the first time in the United States since 2016, ending an eight-fight unbeaten run in the Tijuana boxing circuit. 

His only other professional was to then-unbeaten Diego De La Hoya in 2016.

Jorge Chavez chastised Christian Lorenzo from the opening bell and wound up beating him from pillar to post, as the 23-year-old featherweight prospect kept his undefeated record intact by scoring a unanimous decision. 

The high-volume Chavez (7-0, 5 KOs) dominated Lorenzo (3-5, 1 KO) with one-way heavy fire for all six rounds and was awarded scores of 60-54 from the three judges. 

Anthony Saldivar and Jerome Clayton kicked off the card Saturday night with a four-round junior middleweight matchup. 

The 22-year-old Saldivar (4-0, 2 KOs), a 6-foot, 2-inch southpaw from Ontario, pleased his well-attended hometown faithful by dropping Clayton (2-2-1, 2 KOs) three times to score a second-round stoppage win. 

Saldivar used his three-inch height advantage to press forward and dictate the pace from the opening bell by pumping a jab and breaking Clayton’s guard. 

After warming up in the first, Saldivar scorched in the second, dropping Clayton with a right hook in the opening seconds of the second round. Clayton picked himself back up from the canvas only to be officially dropped again moments later, and a third time for good measure with another Saldivar hook, prompting referee Jack Reiss to wave off the action at the 2:01 mark of the round. 

The Golden Boy Promotions card on DAZN is taking place at the Toyota Arena. 

The main event features former super welterweight champion Jaime Munguia (41-0, 33KOs) making his 168-pound debut against three-time title challenger Sergiy Derevyanchenko (14-4, 10KOs).

Manouk Akopyan is a sports journalist, writer, and broadcast reporter. He’s also a member of the Boxing Writers Association of America and the MMA Journalists Association. He can be reached on Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn, and YouTube at @ManoukAkopyan, through email at manouk[dot]akopyan[at]gmail.com, or via www.ManoukAkopyan.com.