Junior lightweight prospect Dominic Valle remained unbeaten as he scored a unanimous decision win over determined Kevin Piedrahita on a ProBox TV card in Plant City, Florida on Wednesday night. The bout was on the undercard of the middleweight clash between Jarrett Hurd and Jeison Rosario.
Scores were 78-72 and 79-71 twice in Valle’s favor, scores that were wider than the lively crowd at the ProBox TV Events Center would have liked.
Piedrahita (9-3, 8 KOs) came out strong and aggressive in the opening frame, but Valle met him with a nice variety of punches early, showing fast hands and working behind a snappy jab and hooks to head and body. The shorter Piedrahita was looking to swarm and smother, and in round two a big right hand scored as he worked his way in close, but Valle dug to his stomach and switched upstairs in a battle to keep him at mid-range.
Piedrahita continued to plow forward in round three, making Valle (10-0, 7 KOs) work hard, but Valle’s length and punch assortment made it a challenge, Valle landing spearing jabs and hooks to body and head and mixing in uppercuts as Piedrahita came inside.
The fourth round was a Valle masterclass in how a taller fighter beats a shorter one at inside fighting, as he uncorked hooks and uppercuts that landed with thudding authority as Piedrahita powered forward. Still, however, Piedrahita kept coming and by round’s end Valle had a bloody nose for his trouble.
By the fifth, Valle appeared to be looking less at inflicting damage and more at keeping his opponent at bay as the seemingly indefatigable Piedrahita kept coming. Valle’s punches were starting to lose some of their snap, and in the seventh Piedrahita was in the ascendant, landing a big right hand and a pair of hooks that appeared to legitimately stun his foe.
The eighth was a war of attrition as both men landed heavy blows, Valle digging deep as Piedrahita threw everything at him. But a Valle hook at the end of a combination caught Piedrahita and suddenly he was the one who looked fatigued as Valle closed strongly.
In heavyweight action, two-time Olympian Ivan Dychko stopped game but overmatched Craig Lewis in the second round.
Lewis (15-8-1, 8 KOs), lunged crudely at Dychko at the opening bell and did his best to thwart the taller, composed Kazakh with frantic movement as Dychko calmly worked behind a stiff jab and looked for an opportunity to land an overhand right. For a while, Lewis was able to frustrate Dychko’s pursuit of that latter goal by pushing out a long left jab of his own; but in the second, a short right from Dychko (14-0, 13 KOs) buckled his foe and dislodged his mouthpiece.
After a brief pause while it was replaced, another Dychko right hand staggered Lewis again and a left hook put him down in the corner. Yet another right hand buckled Lewis one more time and referee Gene Del Bianco, recognizing that Lewis was in too deep, stepped in and waved a halt to the contest at 2:05 of round two.
In the opening fight on the card, local junior welterweight Tristan Gallichan (5-0-2, 3 KOs) fought to a split draw over six rounds with Renny Mastrapa (3-1-1, 2 KOs).
Mastrapa took the opening round as he sought to press the action, landing a good left hook halfway through the frame, as Gallichan moved around the ring and sized up his foe, although Gallichan did land a three-punch combination at round’s end.
Gallichan was more active in the second, landing a hook early and another three-punch combination, but his output dropped again in the third as Mastrapa stalked forward, occasionally switching to southpaw and aiming to land heavy leather.
The fourth round saw the best action of the contest, as Gallichan landed a series of clean counter left hooks off the ropes, and another big left hook scored for the Floridian in round five as Mastrapa seemed at times frustrated by his opponent’s movement.
A series of sharp combinations appeared to have won Gallichan the sixth round, but his lengthy spells of moving without punching worked against him, as although one judge saw the bout 58-56 in his favor, another scored it the same way for Mastrapa with a third splitting the difference at 57-57.
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