By Rick Reeno
Hard Rock Hotel and Casino - In his welterweight debut, Jessie Vargas (18-0, 9KOs) won a very demanding ten round unanimous decision over rugged veteran Lanardo Tyner (25-7-2, 15KOs). A dirty contest filled with low blows, exchanges after the bell and elbows. All three judges saw it 99-91. Vargas will now likely face Alfonso Gomez in the opening bout on the Floyd Mayweather-Miguel Cotto pay-per-view on May 5th at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas.
Junior middleweight contender Deandre Latimore (23-3, 17KOs) survived two knockdowns to win a ten round majority decision over late-replacement Milton Nunez (23-4-1, 21KOs). The scores were 94-94 for the draw, 96-92 and 95-94
After losing most of the first eight rounds, Nunez catches Latimore with wild shot that buckled his knees near the end of the ninth. Nunez jumped on him with wild punches from both hands. Latimore went down and he was lucky there was no time left on the clock because his legs were gone.
In the tenth and final round, Latimore was doing his best to run out the clock - but then a straight right from Nunez put him down for the second time in the fight. Once again Latimore was lucky the knockdown came in the final ten seconds.
David Clark (4-2, 4KOs) crushed Rocco Espinoza (3-3) with a first round stoppage. Espinoza got hit with a counter and went down in the middle of the first round. He beat the count but a moment later he went down again when a counter right hook cracked him on the chin. Once again he beat the count, but once again he got dropped. This time referee Kenny Bayless waved it off 2:03 of the first.
Welterweight prospect Antonio Orozco (13-0, 9KOs) stopped Rodolfo Armenta (11-6-1, 9KOs) in the fourth round. Armenta was dropped hard in the fourth, and beat the count, but referee Kenny Bayless waved it off.
In a junior welterweight four-rounder filled with fireworks and missed punches, Joaquin Chavez (1-0-1, 1KOs) fought Jalani Wilson (0-0-1) to a draw. All three judges had it 38-38.
