By Francisco Salazar
Junior welterweight Wilberth Lopez won a hard-fought eight round split decision over Alfonso Olvera late Saturday night before a sold-out crowd of 1,687 at the Casino Del Sol in Tucson, Arizona.
It was a battle of bragging rights as Lopez and Olvera reside in Tucson. Both fighters traded combinations throughout the fight, but the southpaw Lopez scored the decisive knockdown with a counter right hand to the head.
One judge scored the bout 76-75 for Olvera, while the other two judges scored the bout 76-75 and 77-74 for Lopez, who improves to 23-9, 15 knockouts.
Olvera falls to 10-5-1, 4 KOs.
Other fighters from the Tucson area also notched a victory on the Peltz Boxing/ Raging Babe card.
Junior lightweight Jensen Ramirez (6-2-3, 1 KO) won a six round majority decision over Jesus Arevalo (2-4). One judge scored the bout 57-57, while the other two judges scored the bout 58-56 for Ramirez.
Junior middleweight Nicholas Rhoads won a one-sided four round decision over Hamilton Ash, who was making his pro debut.
All three judges scored the bout 40-36 in favor of Rhoads, who improves to 4-0, 2 KOs.
In middleweight action, Emmanuel Guajardo (3-0) won a four round decision over Jordan Gregory. All three judges scored the bout 40-36 in favor of Guajardo.
Gregory drops to 0-3-2.
Francisco A. Salazar has written for Boxingscene.com since September of 2012 and has covered boxing in Southern California and abroad since 2000. Francisco also covers boxing for the Ventura County (Calif.) Star newspaper. He can be reached by email at santio89@yahoo.com or on Twitter at FSalazarBoxing
