By Ryan Burton and Mark DeSisto
Las Vegas, Nevada - In a featherweight unification bout at The Palms, Yuriorkis Gamboa (19-0, 15KOs) won a twelve round unanimous decision over Orlando Salido. Gamboa was quicker and better is almost every round. Gamboa suffered a flash knockdown in the eight round. He came back in the twelfth to send Salido down twice. On the second knockdown, Gamboa lost a point for hitting Salido while he was down. The scores were 116-109, 114-109 and 115-109.
Lightweight Brandon Rios (25-0-1, 18KOs) pulled off a minor upset with a dominating performance to defeat previously undefeated Anthony Peterson (30-1, 20KOs) by way of a seven round disqualification. After a good first round, Peterson lost his focus and began to brawl with Rios, the much bigger and stronger man. In the fifth, Rios dropped Peterson with a counter hook. In the sixth, Peterson landed a series of low blows to lose two points. In the seventh Peterson landed another series of low blows and the ref had no choice but to call for the DQ.
Local Las Vegan Diego Magdaleno (16-0) put together perhaps his finest performance to date with a 5th round TKO over Brazilian Carlos Oliveira (25-2). After a close opening round the southpaw Magdaleno let his punches fly. He put his punches together in bunches with no regard to what little Oliveira would throw back. Oliveira was much slower and his punches lacked pop.
Magdaleno dropped Olviveira in the second round. The beating continued in the third as Magdaleno sent the Brazilian staggering into the ropes and had his opponent staggered many times. It was surprising that referee Kenny Bayless let the fight continue past the fourth round as Oliveira was being bombarded with power shots. Magdaleno kept inflicting the beating until referee Kenny Bayless mercifully called the bout to a halt at the 1:13 mark of the 5th round.
Notre Dame's Mike Lee (2-0) came out guns blazing against his heavily tattooed opponent Alex Rivera (2-3). Both men threw wide looping punches throughout the first round. Both fighters appeared tired in the second as Lee started to take control. A body shot dropped Rivera as the bell rang to end the round. Rivera staggered to one knee as referee Tony Weeks waived the fight off. The official time was the 2:59 mark of the second round. Lee had a large contingent of fans wearing Notre Dame blue and papal gold colored Team Lee shirts.
Lightweight prospect Jose Benavidez kept his knockout (8-0 8 KOs) record intact by stopping Manuel Del Cid (4-3) at the :41 mark of the second round.
Benavidez badly hurt Del Cid with two left hands to the liver in the first round but Del Cid was able to survive the round.
Del Cid was notably outclassed by Benavidez. Referee Kenny Bayless saw enough of the mismatch and stopped the fight before Del Cid was knocked down because he was barely throwing punches back at Benevidez. We will most likely see Benavidez next on the Juan Manuel Lopez-Rafael Marquez undercard on November 6.
In the evening's opening fight Russian Matt Korobov (12-0) kept his record perfect by winning a unanimous decision over Anthony Greenidge (14-5-1). The scored were 79-73 on all three judges scorecards .The first round started out with furious exchanges and the first minute or so seemed even. Korbov's better technical skills took over in the second half to win the round.
The second round started out the same way with both men landing bombs. Greenidge was bleeding from his right eye and Korobov on the right side of the bridge of his nose in nother round that Korobov landed the more effective punches.
The third started out slower as Greenidge's punch output slowed. Korobov begain teeing off and turned Greenidge's face into a bloody mess. Korobov started to put together combinations in a dominating round. The doctor checked Greenidge's cut and allowed the fight to continue.
Korobov fought at a controlled effective pace in the fourth and fifth round. Greenidge's punch output waned even more as Korobov won two more easy rounds. Both men opened the sixth round with a sense of urgency as punches were thrown in volume similar to the opening two rounds. This time Greenidge appeared to land the more effective punches to finally win him a round.
Korobov, now also bleeding from his left eye came out more aggressive in the seventh and Greenidge went back to being reluctant to throw punches.
The eighth and final round started out like the seventh with Korobov being more aggressive. Greenidge seemed more content with finishing the fight on his feet rather than trying to get the needed knockout to win.
