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Ramon Cardenas Shocks,
Stops, Upsets Rafael Pedroza
Photos: Stephanie Trapp - SHOWTIME
San Antonio’s Ramon Cardenas thrilled
his hometown fans with a picture perfect performance,
employing a textbook left-hook to drop, stop and upset
Rafael Pedroza in the second round to win his debut on
SHOBOX: The New Generation Friday night in the main event
live on SHOWTIME from Boeing Center at Tech Port in San
Antonio, Texas. Cardenas decked Pedroza twice in the second
round, both on leaping, picturesque left hooks that landed
cleanly and catapulted Pedroza to the canvas. On the second
knockdown, as Pedroza landed awkwardly on his side, referee
Rafael Ramos waved the fight off immediately at 1:22 of the
second frame.
Pedroza became the 235th fighter in the 22-year history of
SHOBOX to lose his undefeated record on the popular prospect
series.
“The first knockdown I hit him with a right hand to the body
and he dropped his guard, so I came back up on top,”
Cardenas said. “I noticed his defense wasn’t that tight, so
I threw it and when it landed, I dropped him. And I knew it
would happen again, so I decided to do it again and that
ended it. He was an undefeated fighter coming on SHOWTIME,
so it’s my biggest win, for sure. From here, we’re onto
bigger and better stuff. I’m sure SHOWTIME will want me back
again after that. I want the champions.”
It was a nightmarish result for Pedroza, who was fighting
for the first time outside of his native Panama and entered
Friday with high expectations, undefeated and ranked fifth
in the WBA at super bantamweight after a highly decorated
amateur career. Instead, it was Cardenas, fighting in his
hometown for the ninth time, who appeared relaxed and poised
and had the night of his life to improve to 22-1 with 12 KOs
as Pedroza fell to 15-1 with 11 KOs.
Cardenas, who was able to get inside of Pedroza’s six-inch
reach advantage, earned a career-best victory at The
Alamodome in July 2022 when he decisioned Michel Banquez in
SHOWTIME BOXING® COUNTDOWN streaming action preceding Mark
Magsayo vs. Rey Vargas. Now he has another spectacular
performance to add to his list of growing achievements.
“I was ranked in every organization in the world for more
than a year, but I didn’t get the chance then,” Cardenas
said. “But now that I’ve made a statement, I’ll take the WBA
(champ), WBC, whatever. My plan was to put the boxing world
on notice, by going out and showing the world who I am. I
believe I did that.”
In the co-feature, Mirco Cuello, a 2020 Argentine Olympian
with a fun, aggressive style, pounded out a tough, 10-round
unanimous decision win against the willing Rudy Garcia in
their featherweight bout, handing Garcia his first loss.
Cuello won by three scores of 99-90, 99-90 and 99-90 to
improve to 13-0 with 11 KOs as Garcia dropped to 13-1-1 with
2 KOs. Currently ranked No. 4 by the WBA’s featherweight
rankings, Cuello bested his sixth undefeated fighter, though
he failed to stop his sixth straight opponent.
It wasn’t for a lack of trying.
Cuello sliced open cuts over Garcia’s left eye and over his
nose with stinging jabs and muscular left hooks and loaded
up on heavy shots that repeatedly found their mark. Cuello
landed 35% of his jabs and 35% of his power punches and
doubled up Garcia in body punches landed 53-24.
“That was the toughest opponent I have ever faced,” Cuello
said. “This was the first time I’ve been 10 rounds and I
learned a lot. I love fighting in the United States and hope
to fight again on SHOWTIME soon.”
The bout wasn’t without a little controversy. Garcia
appeared to drop Cuello with a short, cuffing left hook with
30 seconds remaining in the third, but referee Jon Schorle
allowed the action to continue without calling it a
knockdown as Cuello popped up and kept fighting.
Garcia went down with 52 seconds left in the fifth after
absorbing a right to the shoulder. This time, referee
Schorle ruled it a knockdown, though a clean shot didn’t
seem to land. Cuello followed that up with a punishing left
to the body with Garcia of South Central, Los Angeles
languishing against the ropes to end the round.
In the telecast opener, the promising Freudis Rojas remained
undefeated with a dominant, slick performance over the
Freddie Roach-trained Saul Bustos in their eight-round
welterweight bout, though his perfect knockout streak came
to an end. The stubborn Bustos remained upright, despite
spraining his left ankle in the sixth as Rojas cruised to a
unanimous decision win by scores of 80-72, 79-73 and 79-73
to improve to 12-0 with 11 knockouts. The durable Bustos
dropped his second straight after losing last October to
fall to 15-2-1 with eight KOs.
A lanky 6-foot-2 southpaw technician who also has power,
Rojas last appeared in the ring on July 15 when he scored a
seventh-round TKO in the telecast opener of SHOWTIME
CHAMPIONSHIP BOXING®. The amiable Rojas followed that up
with a strong showing on Friday, displaying his boxing
skills, fast hands and snapping power in the SHOBOX opener.
Rojas averaged 52 punches thrown and 19 punches landed per
round, while Bustos averaged 33 and just seven punches
landed, according to CompuBox.
“I feel like the jab was really working for me,” said Rojas,
a Las Vegas native who lives and trains in Houston. “There
was one point where I felt him applying some pressure and I
said, ‘OK, we have to starting closing in.’ Not every fight
is going to be a knockout and I don’t want every fight to
be. I know the fans love it but at the same time I’m still
growing as a young prospect, and I have to learn how to go
into those later rounds and keep my composure.”
Rojas dominated the first round with his jab and lead left
hooks that repeatedly found their mark. Midway through the
second, Rojas started to back up the hard-charging Bustos,
who absorbed a four-punch combination to end the frame.
Bustos’ left eye started to swell as he continued to eat
stinging jabs and left hands in the fourth. Rojas, who has
sparred with Terence Crawford and Jaron “Boots” Ennis,
started to incorporate feints in the fifth, causing Bustos
to fall off balance. Bustos landed a sharp right to start
the sixth, the first solid punch he connected on and
followed that up with a slapping left hand. But Bustos
rolled his left ankle with 46 seconds left in the sixth as
he stepped on Rojas’ foot moving in, causing referee Ellis
Johnson to stop the action and have the ringside physician
briefly speak to him. The South El Monte, Calif., resident
Bustos charged out of the corner to start the eighth and
final round, but he was met with a series of combinations, a
pattern that repeated itself over and over on Friday.
“Of course, I was a little nervous fighting on SHOWTIME,”
Rojas said. “If someone’s not nervous going out there,
something’s not right. It’s one of the biggest platforms in
all of boxing.”
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