Zelfa Barrett rebounded from a title fight defeat with lopsided points win.
A fifth-round knockdown by Barrett was part of a dominant showing in a twelve-round, unanimous decision victory over Jason Sanchez. Scores were 119-108, 118-110 and 116-111 for Barrett in their DAZN-aired battle of former title challengers Saturday evening from Cardiff International Arena in Cardiff, Wales.
Barrett frequently scored with his right uppercut, which had Sanchez hurt in round three. The visiting boxer from Albuquerque, New Mexico showed a lot of heart and often was able to respond with firepower of his own but never able to dent his opponent’s chin.
Barrett added to his already sizable lead with the bout’s lone knockdown which came midway through round five. A long right hand by Barrett caused Sanchez to freeze in place before he fell to the canvas. Sanchez managed to beat the count—though he nearly went down again during the sequence—and was able to avoid additional punishment for the balance of the round.
To his credit, Sanchez made an effort to take the fight to Barrett in rounds six and seven. Little landed of consequence, as a mobile Barrett was able to dodge most of the incoming and minimized the impact of any punches that Sanchez managed to land.
Lateral movement was utilized to the full extent by Barrett in the later rounds as it became clear that a knockout win was not on the horizon. Sanchez still had to absorb a number of right uppercuts and left hooks to make it to the finish line but fell to 16-4 (9KOs). All four career defeats for Sanchez have come in his past six starts, dating back to his June 2019 defeat to then-unbeaten WBO featherweight titlist Oscar Valdez.
Barrett advanced to 29-2 (16KOs). The win came more than five months after his heartbreaking ninth-round knockout defeat to Shavkat Rakhimov (17-0-1, 14KOs) in their vacant IBF junior lightweight title fight last November 5 in Abu Dhabi. Barrett floored the unbeaten Tajikistani in the third round but was eventually dropped and stopped in his first major title bid.
Rakhimov defends the IBF junior lightweight title versus former claimant and local hero Joe Cordina (15-0, 9KOs).
Jake Donovan is a senior writer for BoxingScene.com. Twitter: @JakeNDaBox
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