INDIO, California – Manuel Flores went after a heavier, unbeaten Mexican fighter to discover where he ranked.
Thursday night’s test against Jorge Chavez provided Flores every bit of that insight, as the pair fought to a compelling majority draw here at Fantasy Springs Events Center.
Judges scored the bout 97-93 Chavez and 95-95 (twice) as Flores’ attempt to win with activity was watered down by Chavez’s stream of defining punches.
Both fighters called for a rematch as Chavez’s record moved to 14-0-1 and Flores landed at 20-1-1.
Flores was assigned the elevated task at junior featherweight to fasten his progression as he eyes victories that land him in the bantamweight rankings, with Japan’s unified champion Junto Nakatani perched at the top.
He discovered all the work that remains to get there Thursday.
Riding a string of five consecutive knockouts before the close of the fourth round, Flores was feted with boisterous cheers of “Manny!” in the opening round, and he responded with a combination to the head, only to take back a hard power shot that showed Chavez’s disinterest in making the latest quick exit.
Absorbing a few more power blows in the second prompted Flores to increase his work rate in the third even as Chavez continued to deliver scoring shots.
Flores penetrated Chavez’s defense with lefts in the fifth, and got the better of an exchange, but then was struck by Chavez rights and an effective combination in the sixth.
By then, chants of “Chavez!” were being serenaded, and a fight broke out in the crowd as the local fighter from Coachella, California, was under duress.
“It takes two to tango,” Chavez said in the ring afterward. “I was making adjustments as the rounds went on.”
A hard left by Flores rocked Chavez’s head in the seventh, and his repetitive lefts outshined Chavez’s power shots.
“I felt like I was controlling the fight,” Flores said. “I was having fun in there.”
Following a close eighth, Flores stepped on the gas and outworked Chavez in the ninth, jarring his head with a right. The fighters’ complementary styles made for an all-action 10th, as Chavez moved off a Flores attack to land a defining right to close the bout.
“I can’t wait to do it again,” Chavez said.
In the co-main event, a crowd-pleasing action fight between Jordan Panthen and Phoenix’s Farid Ngoga was awarded to Ngoga by scores of 95-95, 96-94, 97-93.
Ngoga, 11-1, opened a cut over Panthen’s left eyebrow in the closing rounds thanks to more sharpened activity that was contrasted by Panthen’s more unrefined ruggedness.
New York’s Panthen, 11-1, kept busier through most of the opening round with uppercuts, but in a preview of the back-and-forth bout, he was rocked by a right hand to the head from Ngoga close to the sounding of the bell.
Junior middleweight Panthen recovered quickly and remained active in the second, backing up Ngoga in the waning seconds.
The activity by Panthen separated him from Ngogo as the bout proceeded through the middle rounds, though the Phoenix fighter leaned on his boxing abilities to find openings that Panthen permitted.
Those lapses allowed the creative and advantageous Ngoga to seize the decisive rounds on the scorecards.
Cayden Griffiths, a hometown Indio fighter, emphasized his standing as one of Golden Boy’s top prospects by uncorking a vicious fourth-round uppercut to the belly that finished David Ramirez, 18-6, by knockout at the 1-minute, 54-second mark.
Welterweight Griffiths, 19, showed off the ferocity of his flurries in the earlier rounds, putting Ramirez on guard for the thunderous shots. Instead of sending the most potent blow to the head, Griffiths opted to strike to the stomach, producing a palpable audible reaction from the appreciative crowd as Ramirez crashed to the canvas.
“I genuinely did not throw [the knockout punch] that hard. It was perfect placement and timing on a punch I spend a lot of time in the gym on,” Griffiths said. “I started wearing him down.
“A lot of people think boxing is about physical endurance. It’s also about mental endurance. He was getting frustrated with my jabs and consistent pressure. I knew I was breaking him down a bit. So when I went to the body, it didn’t take much.”
That is part of Griffiths’ learning process, he said.
“I’m still developing my man strength, but to see it in real time, being able to drop grown men with a single punch … it’s amazing. But I’m not taking anything for granted and still making sure I’m defensively sound.”
Junior middleweight Grant Flores, 11-0, of nearby Coachella, recorded a second-round TKO when opponent Todd Manuel, 23-24-1, could no longer continue due to a right hand injury that stopped the bout two seconds into the second round.
In a punishing display of body punching, local fighter Leonardo Sanchez pummeled Tijuana’s Abraham Valdez so frequently it set up a fourth-round TKO at the 2-minute, 16-second mark.
Sanchez, a lightweight from Cathedral City, California, improved to 9-0 (7 KOs) by first wobbling Valdez, 14-2, with a power left hand to the jaw in the second round, leading to a steady body attack in the third and setting up a hard left to the jaw.
Sanchez cornered Valdez to finish him in the fourth, unleashing a destructive combination.
Middleweight Fabian Guzman, 8-0, of Orange, California, opened the DAZN broadcast with a unanimous decision victory over Argentina’s Brian Arregui, 11-6, by scores of 78-74, 79-73, 80-72.
Lightweights Bryan Lua, of Indio, and Colombia’s Kevin Piedrahita each rocked the other several times through their entertaining eight-round scrap, with the judges calling it a majority draw by scores of 78-74 for Piedrahita and 76-76, 76-76.
It was the first blemish on Lua’s ledger as he moved to 10-0-1, while Piedrahita’s impressive rally from trouble left him 10-3-1.
In the card’s opener, welterweight Javier Meza, 4-0, swept a unanimous decision over Colombia’s Cesar Villarraga, 11-13-1, by scores of 59-55, 60-54, 60-54.
Lance Pugmire is BoxingScene’s senior U.S. writer and an assistant producer for ProBox TV. Pugmire has covered boxing since the early 2000s, first at the Los Angeles Times and then at The Athletic and USA Today. He won the Boxing Writers’ Association of America’s Nat Fleischer Award in 2022 for career excellence.
