By Francisco Salazar

StubHub Center, Carson, California - In the co-feature bout, Oscar Valdez won a 10 round unanimous decision over Ruben Tamayo.

It was Valdez's first scheduled 10 round bout and it got off to a rocky start. Near the end of the first round, Tamayo was credited with a knockdown as Valdez dropped to the canvas. Replays revealed Tamayo stepped on Valdez's foot causing him to lose his balance.

From the second round on, Valdez dominated the action, beating the southpaw Tamayo to the punch. Valdez was able to get on the inside of Tamayo's guard, where he repeated landed straight right hands to the head. He was able to do this by stepping outside of Tamayo's lead foot.

Valdez, who represented Mexico in the 2008 and 2012 Olympic Games, was to able to land thudding left hooks or lead right crossed to the head. Tamayo took the punches well and tried to press the action, but would throw and land low blows at times. After repeated warnings, Tamayo was deducted a point from referee Ray Corona in the seventh round.

Valdez was in control during the final rounds, content to throw punches to Tamayo's head and not attempt to attack the body, which would have allowed him to possibly break Tamayo down.

During the final round, Valdez came on aggressively, looking to get a stoppage win, but Tamayo was able to withstand the assault and make it to the final bell.

All three judge scored the bout in favor of Valdez, 98-90, 98-90, and 99-90.

"It was very exciting for my first 10 round fight," said Valdez, who is promoted by Top Rank and managed by Frank Espinoza. "It wasn't as tough as I thought it would be. He (Tamayo) was a tough opponent. That wasn't a knockdown. Our feet got tangled up."

"He's a very fast fighter," said Tamayo after the fight. "He's a cagey puncher and he hits hard."

Valdez improves to 16-0, 14 KOs, while Tamayo drops to 25-6-4, 17 KOs.

Leonardo Chavez (4-1, 3 KOs) won a questionable six round unanimous decision over Jair Quintero. Chavez did well in the opening round, but was dropped by a left hand to the head from Quintero. Referee Eddie Hernandez did not rule it a knockdown, but Quintero (4-5-2) did well in the middle rounds. Chavez came on aggressively in the fifth round, but seemed to slow down in the sixth round. All three judges scored the bout 58-56 in favor of Chavez. 

Featherweight Toka Kahn Clary knocked out Jonathan Perez at the end of the sixth round. It was all Clary (16-0 1NC, 10 KOs) as the southpaw fighter fed Perez an abundant amount of hooks and crosses to the head. As the bout progressed, Perez's (33-12, 27 KOs) dropped dramatically and looked as though he was in survival mode. Right before the end of the sixth round, Clary threw and landed a left cross that dropped Perez on the canvas. Perez remained on the canvas as referee Jack Reiss counted him out at 2:59. 

Junior welterweight Abraham Lopez (1-1) won a one-sided decision over Joann Valenzuela. Lopez  dominated the action, landing everything and anything at will against Valenzuela (1-4-1, 1 KO), who stayed on his feet despite taking lots of punishment. All three judges scored the bout 40-36 in favor of Lopez.

In the opening bout of the Top Rank card, welterweight Ed Brown knocked out Jose Maruffo in the second round. Maruffo (7-3-2) did well in the opening round, landing repeatedly to the body and head of Brown. About a minute into the second round, Brown (6-0, 6 KOs) dropped Maruffo with a left-right combination to the head. Maruffo tried to battle back, but was hurt from a straight right by Brown, who followed up with a vicious attack until the bout was stopped at 1:48.

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 (CA) Star newspaper, RingTV, and Knockout Nation. He can be reached by email at santio89@yahoo.com or on Twitter at FSalazarBoxing