FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. – Tsendbaatar Erdenebat did everything he could to become the first boxer to stop Abraham Montoya on Friday night. In the end, Montoya’s sturdy chin held up – but it was Erdenebat whose hand was raised.
An unbeaten junior lightweight from Tsetserleg, Mongolia, Erdenebat won a unanimous decision in a 10-round fight at the War Memorial Auditorium in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, with two judges scoring the fight 99-91 and the third scoring it 96-94, all for Erdenebat, who improved to 14-0 (6 KOs).
Montoya, a durable brawler from Mexicali, Mexico, made a few fans in the ProBox TV co-main event despite dropping to 23-7-1 (14 KOs).
The pattern that held up through most of the fight was Montoya barging forward with slower punches, which led to counters from the southpaw Erdenebat. The pace appeared to be too much for anyone to counterpunch through, but the 29-year-old Erdenebat looked comfortable taking the opportunities that came his way, landing counter left hands throughout.
Erdenebat scored his most effective blow in the fourth when a counter left caught Montoya coming forward, dazing him at the end of the round. The right hook was also a very effective blow for Erdenebat, as Montoya couldn’t see it coming.
Erdenebat focused more on the body in the eighth, looking to soften up Montoya for a stoppage. The pace began to show on Montoya, whose back touched the ropes for the first time in the round. Despite having the fight won, Erdenebat was unwilling to coast, forcing Montoya to the ropes with body shots and landing looping left hands that often caught him standing too tall to defend.
The loss slows the momentum that Montoya built when he defeated former world titleholder Joseph Diaz Jnr by split decision a year ago.
Erdenebat is promoted by DiBell Entertainment.
In one of the earlier featured fights, Dante Benjamin kept his unbeaten streak alive with a competitive unanimous decision win over Money Powell IV. The scores for the eight-round light heavyweight fight were 77-75 on two cards, while a third judge turned in a less-credible 79-73 score.
Benjamin, 13-0-1 (9 KOs), pulled the fight out late, stepping up his pace in the second half of the fight after Powell, 13-3 (8 KOs), outworked him for extended stretches early on. After a technical chess match for the first half of the bout, a fight broke out in the fifth as both men landed power shots, with Benjamin finding his best success with right hands and Powell finding the target with body shots.
Benjamin became busier in the sixth with his jab, controlling the outside better as Powell began to respect the power punches that came behind his jabs. Benjamin closed the round with a solid right hand off the side of Powell’s head. Despite fading in the middle rounds, Powell stepped up his attack in the eighth, landing an overhand right over the top and a left hook to the body that made Benjamin pause momentarily. Benjamin made his big statement of the round with a three-punch combination to the body that he finished with an uppercut through the guard.
Benjamin, 23, of Cleveland, is managed by Split-T Boxing and was a standout amateur, winning numerous national titles as a Junior Olympian.
Ryan Songalia is a reporter and editor for BoxingScene.com and has written for ESPN, the New York Daily News, Rappler, The Guardian, Vice and The Ring magazine. He holds a Master’s degree in Journalism from the Craig Newmark Graduate School of Journalism and is a member of the Boxing Writers Association of America. He can be reached at ryansongalia@gmail.com or on Twitter at @ryansongalia.
