Junior featherweight contender Carlos Castro won a hard-fought majority decision over former world title challenger Jesus Ruiz late Friday night at the Celebrity Theatre in his hometown of Phoenix, Arizona.
One judge scored the bout 95-95, while the other two judges scored the bout 97-93 and 96-94 for Castro, who improves to 25-0, 10 knockouts.
The 25-year-old had not fought since stopping Daniel Lozano in the opening round on Oct. 12.
Castro’s most impressive victory to date occurred on Feb. 10 of last year, when he defeated former world title challenger Gensis Servania of the Philippines by unanimous decision. He is promoted by Top Rank.
Ruiz, who resides in Nogales, Mexico, drops to 41-9-5, 29 KOs. The 30-year-old, who was stopped by then-WBC junior featherweight titleholder Leo Santa Cruz in January 2017, had won his previous five bouts.
In bantamweight action, Alexis Zazueta (13-0, 6 KOs), who also resides in Phoenix, stopped former world strawweight title challenger Juan Palacios (29-10-2, 22 KOs) at 2:23 of the opening round. Palacios, who resides in Managua, Nicaragua, is winless in his last nine bouts.
Welterweight Saul Bustos (12-0-1, 7 KOs) of Los Angeles stopped Nicaragua’s Ariel Vasquez (14-27-3, 9 KOs) of Nicaragua at 2:49 of the second round.
Featherweight Jesus Ibarra of Apache Junction, Arizona defeated Colorado’s Abdur-Raheem Abdullah (3-4) by decision. All three judges scored the bout 60-54 in favor of Ibarra, who improves to 10-0, 4 KOs.
Iron Boy Promotions promoted the card.
Francisco A. Salazar has written for BoxingScene since September of 2012 and has covered boxing in Southern California and abroad since 2000. Francisco also covers boxing for the Ventura County (Calif.) Star newspaper. He can be reached by email at santio89@yahoo.com or on Twitter at FSalazarBoxing