By Rick Reeno
MGM Grand, Las Vegas - Welterweight contender Sammy Vasquez Jr. (19-0, 13KOs) go the biggest win of his career with a ten round unanimous decision over Wale "Lucky Boy" Omotoso (25-2, 21KOs). All three judges had it 98-92.
Omotoso had trouble with the speed and the accuracy of Vasquez in the early going. Vasquez was also outworking Omotoso and making him miss most of his counter-punch attempts.
During the third, Vasquez pikced up the pace and stated trading shots with Omotoso at close range. Omotoso's mouthpiece went flying out of his mouth during a hard exchange. Vasquez was cut on the upper right side of his head. It wasn't clear if the cut came from a clash of heads, an elbow or a punch.
They started the sixth round by swinging once again at close range. Omotoso was starting to land some good punches, but Vasquez was still controlling the action. During the seventh, Omotoso came on strong and shook Vasquez with several hard shots that forced him to hold on.
Vasquez held his ground in the eight, slugging with Omotoso and landing some hard shots of his own. Vasquez's nose started bleeding as the two of them continued to exchange, and Vasquez's right eye was swelling up. The ninth round was big for Omotoso, who really landed some hard shot as Vasquez's face was a bloddy mess.
In the tenth and final round, Vasquez hurt Omotoso to the body and then unleashed a series of punches as he pinned "Lucky Boy" against the ropes. Vasquez continued to remain more active in the match, as Omotoso showed no sense of urgency to close strong.
The fight was the televised co-feature to the Premier Boxing Champions afternoon broadcast on CBS.