Vergil Ortiz Jr. (22-0, 21 KOs) defeated WBC interim Junior middleweight champion Serhii Bohachuk (24-2, 23 KOs) by a twelve-round majority decision on Saturday night at the Michelob Ultra Arena in Las Vegas.
The judges’ scores were 113-113, 114-112 and 114-112. Bohachuk landed the better, harder shots, but the judges’ liked the boxing from Ortiz, who was knocked down twice in the fight. Vergil went down in rounds 1 and 8. In both instances, Vergil complained that he wasn’t down but was clearly down.
Undercard results
Junior middleweight contender Charles Conwell (20-0, 15 KOs) scored a second-round knockout of Khiary Gray (18-7, 13 KOs). Conwell landed consecutive left hooks to the midsection of Gray to put him down. He is unable to get back, and the fight was stopped.
In an entertaining fight, light welterweight contender Kenneth Sims (21-2-1, 7 KOs) went to war with former IBF 122-lb champion Jonathan Romero (35-5, 19 KOs), stopping him in the fifth round.
Initially, it looked like Sims, 30, would stop Romero in the first round because he was getting shelled. However, Romero played possum, covering up, taking shots, and firing back with blistering combinations that Sims ate.
Romero used his feet to escape punishment in the third and fourth rounds, but he was tired. When Romero would stop, Sims would unload with punches. Romero would fire back with shots, catching Sims cleanly repeatedly.
Romero’s main problem was his lack of power. His shots didn’t have enough pop to take advantage of Sims’ poor defense because he was there to be hit all night. If Romero could punch, he would have likely won because Sims showed no head movement and was taking shots flush.
All in all, Sims looked decent against the 37-year-old Colombian Romero, but he didn’t show the talent that suggests he will win a world title at 140. Sims is too easy to hit, and he’d have problems against the top fighters in the division. Sims has two losses on his record for a reason. He’s flawed.
IBF Flyweight World Champion Gabriela Fundora (14-0, 6 KOs) dominated challenger Challenger Daniela Asenjo (16-4-3, 2 KOs), winning a wide ten-round unanimous decision.
The stork-like Fundora, 5’9″, the sister of WBC/WBO 154-lb champion Sebastian Fundora, pounded Asenjo with shots from the outside, hitting her with uppercuts, left hooks, right hands, and jabs at will. The judges’ scores were 100-90, 100-90, and 100-90.
In the ninth and tenth rounds, Fundora hit Asenjo, 33, with everything but the kitchen sink, trying to score a knockout, but she couldn’t do it. Asenjo was able to avoid a lot of punches that Fundora threw that would have finished the job if they’d landed.
By the ninth round, Asenjo’s left eye and nose were swollen. She’d taken a lot of punishment from the 22-year-old Fundora but held tough without quitting or going down.
Welterweight prospect Joel Iriarte (4-0, 4 KOs) knocked out Miguel Ortiz (3-2, 1 KO) in the first round in a mismatch. The lanky 6’1″ Iriate, 21, staggered Ortiz with a left to the head that sent him back against the ropes.
Ortiz then shelled up, but it was no use as Iriate unloaded on him with a storm of heavy shots that caused the referee to step in and stop the fight. The last punch Iriate threw before the fight was stopped almost sent Ortiz through the ropes. The time of the stoppage was 2:15 of round one.
