OCEANSIDE, California – Oscar De La Hoya says he’s plotting to move his 2024 Olympian and junior welterweight Ruslan Abdullaev rapidly toward a world title.
“His sixth fight,” De La Hoya said earlier this week.
In Abdullaev’s second pro bout Saturday at Frontwave Arena, the Uzbekistan fighter was assigned a tough, frustrating foe from the Philippines, Jino Rodrigo, and posted a convincing 80-71 victory on all three scorecards, also scoring a fourth-round knockdown.
“This was a great experience for Ruslan,” said Abdullaev’s trainer, Joel Diaz. “Because this kid [Rodrigo] was durable, with a lot of experience. Stepping up to a fight like that will only make him better.”
After getting decked in the fourth by a left hook, Rodrigo employed a tactic of dropping to the canvas when Abdullaev’s pressure intensified – both avoiding another point deficit and creating a breather for himself.
Abdullaev’s hardened punches to the head and body maintained the pressure, and reinforced to Diaz that Abdullaev is up to the bold plans of De La Hoya.
The current world titleholders at 140lbs are Teofimo Lopez Jnr, Richardson Hitchins, Alberto Puello and Gary Antuanne Russell.
“That’s possible, because Ruslan has a lot of experience,” Diaz said. “In his whole amateur career, 90 percent of his fights were knockouts or had knockdowns. Yes, he has the ability to be a champion within six fights.”
Welterweight prospect Joel Iriarte opened the DAZN broadcast with another sudden knockout, stopping Puerto Rico’s Marcos Jimenez, 25-12 (17 KOs), 1 minute and 44 seconds into the first round of a bout that was Iriarte’s first fight scheduled for eight rounds.
“We prepared for more rounds, but that punch landed and it was a good experience. … My thought was to get in and get him out of there and that’s what we did,” said Iriarte, 7-0 (7 KOs).
Jimenez’s corner stopped the fight.
“When he got back up, he was on shaky legs, so I’m glad they took him out of there before he got more hurt,” Iriarte said.
Despite the extra work he longs for, Iriarte is generating a wealth of buzz thanks to his quick stoppages. Iriarte has now finished his seven foes in a combined 23:46.
“I have a great team behind me with the experience of building champions, and keeping busy is a big part of this. The opponents they put in front of me, I’m trying to get them out of there,” said Iriarte, who’s hoping to return June 28 on the Anaheim card featuring a pair of cruiserweight fights – Jake Paul versus Julio Cesar Chavez Jnr and unified champion Gilberto “Zurdo” Ramirez versus Yuniel Dorticos.
“I’m climbing that ladder, little by little approaching the top guys.”
The victory gave Iriarte the WBA Continental gold welterweight belt, a strap he said he intends to be “the first of many.”
In his 99-91, 99-91, 97-93 victory over Felix Valera, heavyweight Tristan Kalkreruth didn’t mind absorbing some punches to deliver the heavier shots that moved his record to 15-1.
Earlier, in his pro debut, 2024 U.S. Olympic super heavyweight Joshua Edwards peppered rotund Larry Gonzalez (292.8 pounds) with jabs and landed flush rights to soften up the opponent in the first round.
In the second, Edwards unleashed a stream of heavy rights that sent Gonzalez reeling across the ring until the fight was stopped at the 1-minute, 51-second mark.
Ten months after a co-main-event appearance on a Premier Boxing Champions’ pay-per-view while going the distance with now-WBC light heavyweight belt holder David Benavidez, Ukraine’s former 175lbs titlist Oleksandr Gvozdyk stepped into the ring for the night’s second bout with barely 100 fans watching.
Fighting as a cruiserweight, Gvozdyk nevertheless took care of business, battering Anthony Hollaway with a third-round barrage that sent Hollaway to the canvas. Seconds later, Gvozdyk, 21-2 (17 KOs), found Hollaway in the opposite corner with a barrage that ended the bout at the 1-minute, 37-second mark.
Samuel Torres of Gilroy, California, followed Gvozdyk with his own rapid work, punishing Marc Misiura with two rugged combinations that sent Misiura, 3-8-1 (1 KO), covering for shelter in the first round, leaving his corner to stop the fight before the second round began. Torres, at 154lbs, is now 2-0 (1 KO).
Jorge Chavez, a junior featherweight from Tijuana, Mexico, remained unbeaten in the final pre-DAZN bout, by defeating Salt Lake City’s Brandon Douglas by unanimous decision on three 80-71 scorecards.
Chavez, 14-0 (8 KOs), staggered Douglas, 13-2 (11 KOs), in the eighth after the pair engaged in an entertaining exchange in the sixth. Chavez’s overall activity won him the bout.
In the card’s opening fight, lightweight Dalis Kaleiopu, 7-0 (5 KOs), of Hawaii, posted a one-punch, first-round knockout of Mexico’s Jesus Ramon Perez, 14-21-1 (8 KOs).
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.
