Now he gets Lomachenko
He’ll face the threebelt champion Dec. 1 at the Forum to unify the lightweight titles.
Jose Pedraza wins WBO lightweight title to earn Dec. 1 fight at Forum.
GLENDALE, Ariz. — Jose Pedraza was content in the early going to let his jab get the best of gritty lightweight champion Ray Beltran.
When it was time to close, Pedraza went into power mode, landing an 11th-round knockdown on a left uppercut to Beltran’s chin, then pummeling him in a neutral corner to end the 12th.
Because of the thoughtful, complete display, judges made Puerto Rico’s Pedraza (25-1) the new World Boxing Organization lightweight champion by scores of 117-110, 117-110, 115-112 Saturday night at Gila River Casino Arena.
The win moves Pedraza to a Dec. 1 title-unification bout at the Forum against three-division champion Vasiliy Lomachenko.
“The style he has is not a style Lomachenko is used to, and [Pedraza] told me after, ‘My style is the one that can beat Lomachenko,’ ” promoter Bob Arum said.
Beltran, with the home advantage, had every right to believe the scores were close after he smacked Pedraza with punches to the body early in the 11th.
Then, Pedraza unleashed the hard uppercut, sending Beltran (35-8-1) to the canvas. He wouldn’t yield to Pedraza’s furious attempt to finish him on the ropes, but the decisive damage was done.
In the co-main event, Isaac Dogboe made a dominating first defense of his WBO super-bantamweight belt with a first-round technical knockout of Japan’s Hidenori Otake (31-3-3).
Ghana’s Dogboe (20-0, 14 knockouts) began hammering Otake with left uppercuts and body shots to set up the first of two knockdowns that preceded the stoppage by referee Chris Flores at 2 minutes 18 seconds.
Dogboe aspires to become a boxing superstar and he made a point to call for fellow champions Rey Vargas, Daniel Roman and TJ Doheny to meet him.
“Let’s make this happen. They should come forward. I’m looking to get a lot of titles, one here [over the left shoulder], one here [over the right shoulder] and one here [around the waist],” Dogboe said.
Earlier, Mikaela Mayer landed heavy shots that hurt Edina Kiss, leading the Hungarian to quit on her stool after three rounds.
Mayer (7-0, four KOs), of the San Fernando Valley, scored a first-round knockdown on a straight right and her following blows repeatedly backed Kiss (14-8).
“I could sense that I was hurting her when I looked into her eyes,” Mayer said. “Once my jab lands clean, I knew she’d back up.”
Although Kiss had been through more pro bouts, 2016 U.S. Olympian Mayer said, “The amateurs gave me experience that a lot of these girls don’t have. I have a coach who’s been in this for years. He tells me to relax and stay behind the jab.”
Mayer is likely to return to the ring Oct. 13 on the undercard of the Terence Crawford-Jose Benavidez welterweight title fight in Nebraska for a bout scheduled for eight rounds.
McCain saluted
A saddened fight crowd was shaken and prepared to silently bow for a 10-count honoring Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), who died Saturday at 81 after battling brain cancer and was remembered as “the boxing senator” by Arum.
An amateur boxer for the Naval Academy in the 1950s, McCain displayed lifelong passion and appreciation for the sport, seen both in his legislative work and his fiery ringside cheering.
McCain’s finest bit of legislative support for the sport was the Muhammad Ali Boxing Reform Act, which provided professional fighters with financial, health and safety safeguards that didn’t previously exist, such as mandatory financial disclosures from promoters and managers to the boxers.
McCain “was important in everything in boxing . ... He was the boxing senator,” Arum said.
“I didn’t agree with him a lot,” Arum added. “He was too conservative for me, but you respected him because he believed in those things and he was the only guy who would go across the aisle and make deals with Democrats … really terrific guy.”