Luis Torres snatched victory from the hands of defeat with a late rally to stop Jonhatan Cardoso on Friday in Washington, D.C.
Torres scored a ninth-round technical knockout over Cardoso in their lightweight clash at CareFirst Arena, finishing him at 2 minutes, 59 seconds of the penultimate frame.
Torres, a 23-year-old from Ciudad Obregon, Sonora, Mexico, had a strong opening round, landing several good body shots on Cardoso, but a headbutt in the final seconds of the round caused a cut on his nose. The fighters began by exchanging in close quarters in the second round, with both landing clean punches.
Cardoso, a 26-year-old from Guarulhos, Sao Paulo, Brazil, started slowly but showed improved defense and was quicker to let his hands go by the third round. Torres pressured Cardoso in the fourth, landing body shots. The fight hit a lull in the fifth as Cardoso kept Torres on the outside with a jab. Cardoso continued to outbox Torres, as Torres began to apply pressure toward the second half of the round.
The rounds became tactical and hard to tell who was landing the cleaner punches. With Cardoso dictating the range of the fight, it appeared Cardoso was pulling away. Then it happened: Torres dropped Cardoso with a left hand at the end of the ninth. Cardoso got up on unsteady legs, with blood flowing from his nose. Torres pounced on Cardoso, punching relentlessly as Cardoso fell over, prompting referee Malik Waleed to halt the contest just as the bell sounded to end the round.
Torres, now on a four-fight win streak, improved to 22-1 (13 KOs). Cardoso fell to 18-2 (15 KOs).
Junior lightweight Francois Scarboro Jnr, of Cheverly, Maryland, won an eight-round unanimous decision over Kevin Piedrahita, of Plant City, Florida. Scores were 78-74, 77-73 and 79-74.
Scarboro found himself in a firefight early with the 25-year-old Piedrahita, who rocked him in the second round with a power punch. The fighters exchanged power shots for the majority of the first four rounds, with both causing damage.
Scarboro, 29, began to take over in the second half of the fight from Piedrahita, who took the assignment on short notice. In the final two rounds, Scarboro used his distance with a well-timed jab to make the fight easier than he had in the earlier rounds.
Scarboro is now 11-0 (8 KOs), while Piedrahita is 10-4-1 (9 KOs).
Junior middleweight Elijah Flores, of The Bronx, New York, knocked out Luis Hernandez Ramos, of Chihuahua, Mexico, in the second round of a bout scheduled for eight rounds. The time of stoppage was 2 minutes, 21 seconds.
Flores, 21, landed a right hand that dazed the 29-year-old Ramos in the second round, leading to a combination of punches that forced Ramos to take a knee and be unable to continue.
Flores moved to 10-0 (4 KOs), with Ramos falling to 23-8 (20 KOs).
In the opening bout, welterweight Benjamin Johnson, of Springdale, Maryland, earned a fifth-round technical knockout over veteran Luis Caraballo Ramos, of Trujillo Alto, Puerto Rico. The time of the stoppage was 1 minute, 8 seconds.
Johnson, 20, extended his knockout streak to five as Ramos’ corner stopped the bout after their fighter began to gesture that something was in his eye. Ramos was unhappy with the stoppage. Johnson had stopped all of his previous opponents in the first round.
Johnson improved to 5-0 (5 KOs), while the 32-year-old Ramos dropped to 7-7-1 (7 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.
