MINNEAPOLIS – Michel Rivera knew he was the better boxer well before the opening bell for his eventual win over Joseph Adorno.

The unbeaten lightweight contender sought out to prove much more in his recent unanimous decision win, only to find a less than cooperative opponent.

“We heard all this talk, this guy is undefeated and he has real power,” Rivera told BoxingScene.com. “I wanted to show [Adorno] that I can punch, too. He never gave me the chance, he didn’t want to fight. He was in survival mode the whole time. It’s difficult to get a knockout when someone fights just to survive.”

Adorno (14-1-2, 12KOs) entered the fight with a reputation as a big puncher, having knocked out 75% of his opponents and twice dropping Jamaine Ortiz in their eventual eight-round draw last April. Miami’s Rivera hoped to challenge that claim during their March 26 Showtime-televised co-feature from The Armory in Minneapolis, Minnesota. The fight was instead dictated by Rivera’s jab (72-of-320, 22.5%) while trying to chase down a mobile Adorno for most of their ten-round affair, which served in chief support to the U.S. debut of Australian junior middleweight contender Tim Tszyu’s twelve-round, unanimous decision win over Terrell Gausha.

Rivera won by scores of 97-93 on all three judges’ cards to earn his fourth victory in just 13 months, with the last two having gone the distance.

“I was trying to get the knockout. I saw by round five, round six, he didn’t want to fight,” insists Rivera. “He was taking my jabs but it was difficult to land my right hands because he started running. I just stuck to my game plan.

“I didn’t want to give up my ground and shorten the distance for him. So, I just stuck to working my jab. I wanted a knockout, but the plan is always to win. I hit him good, not as hard as I wanted to because he was running.

Jake Donovan is a senior writer for BoxingScene.com. Twitter: @JakeNDaBox