By Gilbert Manzano

LAS VEGAS — Lamont Roach Jr. and Jonathan Oquendo promised a great battle, but only one fighter delivered on that commitment Saturday.

Who delivered? Well, it depends on who you ask.

With Oquendo as the aggressor for most of the bout, the judges surprisingly scored it a unanimous decision in favor of Roach (97-92, 97-92, 96-93).  

The battle between Washington D.C. and Puerto Rico appeared as a lopsided affair in the early rounds, with Oquendo picking apart a bloodied Roach in the opening bout of the Saul “Canelo” Alvarez-Daniel Jacobs undercard streamed on DAZN.

Roach, who won the WBO junior lightweight final eliminator, was booed by the crowd at T-Mobile Arena during his in-ring interview.

“The fight played out good,” Roach said. “I think it could have gone better of course. But I’m glad we got this experience, to go up to the championship level. The only guys that beat him became champions and I’m one of them.” 

The bout had minimal action. By the seventh round, the fans could be heard booing and murmuring adjectives for boring.  

“He likes to fight, I like to fight, and we're going to make sure we have a great battle and a victory for Puerto Rico,” Oquendo said before the fight.

The Puerto Rican fell to 30-6, and Roach remains undefeated at 19-0-1. Roach, who’s promoted by Golden Boy Promotions, is now first in line to face Japan’s Masayuki Ito, the WBO champion.

“He’s as tough as they come,” Roach said. “He fought former world champions, he beat a former world champ, he brought the fight to me, and if someone else brings the fight to me, I’m ready. I can go ten, I can go twelve.”

In Roach’s previous fight, he defeated Alberto Mercado via decision. He also defeated Orlando Cruz last year. Oquendo is best remembered for his close decision loss to Abner Mares in 2014.

Roach was the winner in the eyes of the judges, but he struggled for most of the fight with a bloody nose.

“I knew that I was bleeding because I could feel the trickling but I’ve been getting hit in the face since I was nine years old,” Roach said. “It wasn’t nothing I wasn’t used to.”