Tsendbaatar Erdenebat tops Francy Fortunato on ProBox TV undercard

Tsendbaatar Erdenebat edged closer to a shot at a junior lightweight title when he earned his 11th professional victory via a unanimous decision over Francy Fortunato on Wednesday at the ProBox Event Center in Plant City, Florida.

Erdenebat, 11-0 (5 KOs), imposed a high work rate on Fortunato, 15-2 (11 KOs), and also largely dictated the range at which their fight unfolded, and in so doing inflicted on the Dominican his second defeat.

It was in the second round when Erdenebat first made a significant impression on both Fortunato and the judges, when he trapped his opponent towards the ropes and started targeting his body.

Another punch to the body curiously led to Fortunato clutching his head and complaining, which in turn led to one member of the crowd present comparing him to Ben Whittaker, so recently accused of seeking a way out of his fight with Liam Cameron on the undercard of Artur Beterbiev-Dmitry Bivol – and before the round concluded Fortunato was again under assault on the ropes.

When the third followed a similar pattern, Fortunato, 26, responded by instead attempting to pick cleaner punches but did so like a fighter who may have struggled to make weight.

They exchanged right hands in the fourth, before Erdenebat again hurt Fortunato to the body and in turn was punished by taking a straight right hand. The Dominican’s struggles, regardless, were captured by him bleeding from his bottom lip and by him showing signs of fatigue.

It was from the sixth when Mongalia’s Erdenebat, as a consequence of the intensity with which he had been seeking to fight, started to do so in bursts, as he did towards the round’s end.

He got through with a straight left in the seventh, following another burst of activity, and then another left hand at the end of another burst.

Three further left hands followed in quick succession in the eighth, and when in the ninth they continued to fight at the 28-year-old Erdenebat’s favored range but Fortunato attempted to fight back, it served only to show how little that range did for the power of the longer Fortunato’s punches.

In a reversal of roles, it was the tiring Erdenebat who found himself trapped towards the ropes in the 10th and final round, but with Fortunato’s left eye swelling up, the judges’ decision appeared a near-certainty, as the scores then confirmed.

The Puerto Rican light heavyweight Najee Lopez had by then impressed by dismantling Ismael Ocles inside three rounds.

He caught the eye as early as the first, via his body work and when landing a right hand to the head.

Ocles, from Ecuador, was already showing signs of being broken down in the second round because of a succession of right hands that forced him back towards the ropes, where further right hands again made an impression.

The stoppage came after 38 seconds of the third, when Lopez, 12-0 (9 KOs), threw a vicious right to the body, and after a delayed reaction Ocles, 15-17 (3 KOs), went down, clearly hurt, and was counted out.

David Navarro earlier recorded the first defeat of Mykell “G Baby” Gamble’s career when he outworked him to earn scores of 78-73, 78-73 and 77-74 at the conclusion of their featherweight contest.

The time will likely come when Gamble, 7-1 (4 KOs), is frustrated about the relative ease with which he allowed Navarro, 7-1 (3 KOs), to largely dictate the pace at which they fought.

In the opening round, Gamble landed a straight left to Navarro’s chin that demonstrated a hole in his defense, and while he didn’t hurt his opponent, Gamble was presented with further opportunities to do so and struggled to take them.

From as early as the third, their fight became a battle between Navarro’s hand speed and Gamble’s speed of foot, but for all that Navarro presented Gamble with opportunities to time him and counter him, he fought with a lack of spite and was therefore gradually outscored.

Navarro caught the eye in the fourth when he landed a right hand. He then swung and missed with a left, before landing another right in close while Gamble was off-balance.

He appeared to hurt Gamble in the fifth, and in the sixth landed another strong right hand before absorbing a counter left and then watching Gamble make him miss.

A familiar pattern unfolded in the seventh – Navarro landing, this time a left hand to the chin, then becoming overeager, swinging with a right hand and missing the target. He continued to swing, and Gamble’s punch resistance meant that he continued to absorb the punishment that came his way – but without the activity he required to be more than a competitive loser.