Alberto Mora had to get off the canvas to win on Friday at the Domo Alcalde in Guadalajara, Mexico.
Mora won a 10-round unanimous decision over Jose Amaro in a featherweight bout. The scores were 97-92, 97-92 and 96-93.
Amaro dropped Mora, of Mexico City, in the first round with a straight left hand. Amaro, a 26-year-old from Monterrey, Mexico, continued to trouble Mora, who followed him around the ring.
Mora adjusted, and the bout became an intriguing technical bout, with both fighters having their moments in the middle rounds. The difference was the volume of Amaro and the clean punches of the 27-year-old Mora – and it was unclear which the judges would favor.
Amaro hurt Mora with a right hook in the eighth round, though Mora withstood the blow. Mora\ bounced back, landing big blows in the ninth round. The final round was the most exciting, as Mora landed his best punches of the fight and an exhausted Amaro continued to push forward, looking to make the fight.
Mora had mainly fought at junior lightweight until his previous bout, when he defeated Viktor Slavinskyi in a featherweight bout last March.
Mora kept his unbeaten record and improved to 14-0 (9 KOs), while Amaro is now one of the most dangerous 12-2-1 (4 KOs) fighters in the world.
In a regional junior welterweight bout earlier on the undercard, Abraham Cordero won a split decision over Eduardo Martinez.
The scores were 97-93 and 96-94 for Cordero and 96-95 in favor of Martinez. The result garnered a mixed reaction of cheers and boos.
Cordero, a 31-year-old from Guadalajara, Mexico, was coming off a disqualification win over Angel Fierro. He moved to 17-6-2 (8 KOs) and is now on an eight-fight win streak, unbeaten since a 2023 loss to Kevin Anton.
Martinez, of Cuernavaca, Mexico, saw his six-fight win streak snapped as he fell to 16-3 (11 KOs).
Junior middleweight Sebastian Juarez, of Brownsville, Texas, won a six-round unanimous decision over Ernesto Sanchez, of Guadalajara. Scores were 59-54, 59-55 and 58-56.
Juarez was coming off a wild first round in which he was knocked down, lost two points and dropped his opponent three times, leading to a stoppage. The younger brother of contender Omar Juarez, Sebastian, 21, was much more patient in this fight than his opponent. Sanchez, 26, might have lacked a bit of craft, but he had volume and was awkward.
Juarez improved to 11-0 (8 KOs), and Sanchez fell to 5-3-1 (4 KOs).
Lucas Ketelle is the author of “Inside the Ropes of Boxing,” a guide for young fighters, a writer for BoxingScene and a member of the Boxing Writers Association of America. Find him on X at @BigDogLukie.
