Ricardo Sandoval handed a dubious stoppage win over Angel Acosta

ONTARIO, California – In a bout that seemed bound for a tense reading of the scorecards, referee Raul Caiz Jr. instead took on the drama all to himself.

Caiz stepped in nearly midway through the 10th and final round of the Saturday night co-main event between Ricardo Sandoval, of Rialto, California, and Puerto Rico’s former junior flyweight champion Angel Acosta, awarding Sandoval a controversial TKO victory at Toyota Arena.

“I wasn’t hurt,” Acosta said after getting backed to the ropes by Sandoval’s pressure. “It was a good shot, but I was in control and ready to keep fighting. And then, all of a sudden, the ref stopped the fight.”

In the end, perhaps it didn’t matter because the scorecards had Sandoval winning widely, 88-83 (Ron Scott Stevens), 89-82 (Alejandro Rochin), 87-84 (George Cruz).

Flyweight Sandoval (25-2) admitted the stoppage, which came at 1:23 of the 10th, seemed “a little early.”

“I think I still would’ve got him out of there,” Sandoval said before seeing the scorecards. “I think I was winning the fight. I was showing a lot of defense. He was missing most of his punches, and I was connecting.”

As often happens in lighter-weight battles between evenly matched opponents, the bout was a busy, competitive scrap and void of knockdowns.

Acosta, 33, had told his trainer, Joel Diaz, he prepared as if this was his final fight, and he and Sandoval engaged in several entertaining back-and-forth flurries, with Acosta (24-5) winning the eighth and ninth rounds on Cruz’s scorecard.

But then Sandoval cornered Acosta and landed a good body blow, with Acosta turning to alter his position when Caiz surged in to stop the fight.

“I don’t understand why,” Diaz said. “[Acosta] was the one pushing the fight. He was the one being most aggressive. He hurt [Sandoval] three times and [Caiz] didn’t say anything.”

Told of the scores, Diaz said, “They’re always going to lean to the favored fighter. Acosta put in so much work. He said, ‘I’ve got to win.’”

Sandoval said he’s open to a rematch.

Following his Saturday second-round knockout triumph in a junior lightweight bout, Manuel Flores felt so good that he spoke of returning to bantamweight – where he last fought in 2021 – to pursue champion Junto Nakatani.

Flores (18-1, 14 KOs) first decked badly overweight (128.8 pounds) opponent Nohel Arambulet (23-7-2) with an overhand right and then ended the bout with a left uppercut.

“My opponent came in seven pounds overweight, but I still wanted the fight. It’s about heart,” Flores said, giving himself a B+ for the showing and adding, “I’m hard on myself. You have to be your own hardest critic in this sport.”

He credits sparring in his Indio, California, gym with former unified bantamweight titleholder Murodjon “M.J.” Akhmadaliev for his sharpness, and said he’s ready to fight again immediately.

“I didn’t even get touched,” Flores, 25, said.

Golden Boy’s elite prospect Joel Iriarte of Bakersfield, California, showed why the promoter is so high on him, unleashing a slew of ill-intentioned right uppercuts to score a second-round TKO of Texas’ Yainel Alvarez (3-5-2) in welterweight action.

Iriarte, 21, moved to 3-0 with three knockouts. The tall, hammer-fisted fighter devoted extensive time to the body in the first round and then increased his punishment of Alvarez, causing referee David Sullivan to stop the fight 2:41 into the second. 

“Learning lessons every time I’m in the ring … I’m happy about it,” Iriarte said. “I used all the tools in my toolbox. Stayed calm, listened to my corner. Affer hurting him, being able to use that calm mindset.”

Iriarte took more than three months off after his last bout to refresh, he said, and now he wants to fight monthly to close the year.

“There was nothing holding me back, just a matter of Golden Boy having the space for[me],” he said. “They’re moving me right.”

Mexico fighters won back-to-back bouts to close the non-DAZN portion of the undercard.

Welterweight Pedro Campa (36-3-1) iced his unanimous decision triumph with a 10th-round knockdown of Chicago’s Alex Martin (18-6).

Campa won by scores of 97-90, 96-91, 94-93.

And featherweight Gael Cabrera, also from Sonora, produced a dream showing, knocking down his opponent Mychaquell Shields in each round, finishing him 1:09 into the third round on a combination of body blows in a neutral corner.

Cabrera (5-0, 3 KOs) first decked Shields (2-5) with a right-handed blow in the first round, then sent him down again in the second before applying the finishing touches. 

Lightweight Joshua Garcia of nearby Moreno Valley seemed to have dominated his Filipino opponent, Jason Buenaobra, but emerged with only a majority decision victory (57-57, 58-56, 59-55).

Garcia (9-0), managed by Oscar De La Hoya’s brother, Joel, impressively and creatively dismantled Buenaobra (10-11-3) by unleashing both punishing body blows and head shots, backing him to the ropes in the final round.

Hometown middleweight Anthony Saldivar improved to 7-0 with three knockouts, immediately putting to bed the theatrics of smiling, free-swinging Roman Canto (15-18-3) of the Philippines.

Canto sought to land a lucky punch but instead absorbed punishment capped by a flurry of Saldivar blows in Canto’s corner that stopped the bout 54 seconds into the round.

Golden Boy lightweight prospect Daniel Luna battered Joseph Walker so thoroughly in the first round that referee Caiz waved the bout over with Walker on his stool at the close of the first.

Luna (4-1, 4 KOs) was coming off a surprising four-round decision loss to Erick Garcia Benitez in October, but he wasted no time taking the intrigue out of this bout.

A hard left to the head caused Walked to slump forward and try to hold as Luna freed up and landed a steady barrage, including a hard right-handed body blow and a hook to the head. Caiz took a good look to Walker’s corner and stopped things just as the ring card girl stepped in to hold up her Round 2 poster.

The afternoon opened with featherweight Japhethlee Llamido (12-1) of Long Beach, California, posting a one-sided 80-71, 78-73, 77-74 unanimous decision victory over Las Vegas’ Ryan Allen (10-8-1).