PALM DESERT, California – After meticulously studying his planned opponent and then learning he would have to move up more than 10lbs in weight against someone else for his main event, Raul Curiel showed Friday that he’s up for anything.

The highly ranked welterweight defeated replacement foe Jordan Panthen by unanimous decision scores of 97-93 (Rudy Barragan), 97-93 (Raul Caiz) and 98-92 (Fernando Villarreal) at Acrisure Arena to remain undefeated and very much in welterweight title contention.

“I could feel the weight, but I had a great camp and I have a great team behind me,” Curiel, 17-0-1, said afterward. “I gave a tremendous fight for the people.”

Panthen, 11-2, replaced Alexis Rocha, who fought Curiel to a draw in December 2024 but then suffered through his weight cut and withdrew from the rematch Friday morning.

Panthen was elevated from a non-DAZN middleweight fight on the card, and the contracted weight for the bout was made at 158lbs – 11lbs higher than the welterweight limit.

The bout opened with some exchanges of combinations, with Curiel landing a clean right to the head in the second. In the fourth, the Mexican-born Curiel struck Panthen, a New York fighter nicknamed “Patriot,” with a right-left to close the round.

Curiel asserted himself more in the eighth by alternating hands for power punches.

In the ninth, Curiel sent Panthen reeling with a thunderous exchange punctuated by a right hand, following with a flurry that had his replacement foe wounded.

Curiel said returning Trainer of the Year Robert Garcia instructed him to pound the body and move his head to conquer the weight difference.

“[Panthen] was a warrior, but I had the preparation to do it,” Curiel said.

Ranked third by the WBA and fifth in the WBC, Curiel said what he proved Friday when asked about his division’s champions.

“I’ll fight anyone,” he said.

Friday’s card followed another dramatic development earlier in the day that raised questions whether this was DAZN’s final full Golden Boy card.

In a lawsuit filed against Golden Boy by unbeaten WBC interim junior middleweight titleholder Vergil Ortiz Jnr, Ortiz attorney Gregory Smith said Golden Boy’s attorney has “confirmed that the [Golden Boy]/DAZN agreement had concluded.

However, according to the lawsuit, “in late October, Golden Boy and DAZN agreed on the material terms of a new License Agreement to cover calendar years 2026 and 2027 and have since exchanged several drafts of the long-form agreement documenting those material terms.”

A DAZN spokesman earlier this week declined to discuss the status of the DAZN-Golden Boy union with BoxingScene.

Ryan Garcia, a Golden Boy fighter, will headline the February 21 Las Vegas card against WBC welterweight belt holder Mario Barrios, but that’s a Ring Magazine card backed by Saudi Arabia financier Turki Alalshikh.

Smith wrote in the Ortiz lawsuit, “[O]f course, [Golden Boy’s] incomplete and unexecuted 2026 DAZN contract has no legal impact because [legal precedent states] ‘an agreement to agree at a future time is nothing. …’”

DAZN and Golden Boy’s union began with a Saul “Canelo” Alvarez bout in New York in late 2018.

If this was the end, on the other side of the country, another Mexican fighter – this one seeking to become the first native Mexican champion since Antonio Margarito – flexed his promise as well.

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.