Golden Boy boxing returned to ESPN2 last night with two bouts that turned out to be good fights. Junior welterweight Michael Perez improved to 25-2-2 (11 KOs) with a split decision win over Argentinian Marcelino Lopez (32-2-1, 17 KOs) while unbeaten welterweight prospect Rashidi Ellis (18-0, 12 KOs) narrowly hung on to his unbeaten record with a majority decision over John Karl Sosa (13-3, 6 KOs) of Puerto Rico.
In the main event Michael Perez started and finished well, but Lopez managed to bully him at points in the middle of the fight including a very good eighth round knock down. Perez spent the majority of the fight attempting to avoid his normal brawling tactics. He jabbed and moved well and ended up pocketing enough rounds to win legitimately. I had the score 95-94 in his favor. This does feel like Perez’ ceiling, however. I can’t imagine him having any sort of success further up in the division.
For me the real draw of the show was to see the aptly nicknamed “Speedy” Rashidi Ellis, but instead of the expected showcase he drew an extremely tough test from Karl Sosa. Ellis was definitely able to show off his very fast hands, but he also showed a very leaky defense that relied on quick twitch movement without much technique. Ellis seems more of an Andre Berto or Adrien Broner (comparison in style, not quality) in terms of having flashy handspeed but not necessarily being a special athlete otherwise, but he seemed to think he was prime Roy Jones Jr instead. What he actually was in the fight was a guy who got punched a lot. Still, I scored the fight 96-94 in his favor and two of the judges game it to him as well. Teddy Atlas complained about the card coming back a draw, but I found it reasonable. Sosa fought well.
On the WatchESPN.com prelims lightweight fringe contender Eddie Gomez (20-2, 11 KOs) won an eight round unanimous decision over Dennis Dauti (14-2, 7 KOs) and light heavyweight actual contender Vyacheslav Shabranskyy (18-1, 15 KOs) stopped journeyman Larry Pryor (10-16, 5 KOs) in a get well bout that was technically contested at cruiserweight by being two pounds over the light heavyweight limit. This was his first fight back since his first loss, a December stoppage to Sullivan Barrera.
