It wasn’t the main event Golden Boy meant to put on, but unbeaten bantamweight prospect Oscar Negrete kept his undefeated record intact when the trainer of completely overmatched Sergio Frias opted to halt the bout following the eighth round. A few Golden Boy prospects were also victorious on the undercard.
Oscar Negrete (17-0, 7 KOs), born in Colombia and based out of California, dominated this fight from start to finish. He put extreme pressure on Sergio Frias (19-7-2, 10 KOs) from minute one and never relented. Negrete hurt and dropped Frias to the body late in the third. If he had had ten more seconds, the Colombian probably would have won the fight then and there as the final blow of the round had Frias once again doubled over in pain and about to go down.
The two big body shots aside, Negrete did show a potentially problematic lack of power. He landed a ton of clean shots to the head that, while scoring well, did little to bother Frias as single shots. Both fighters’ records suggests it was not Frias’s chin being ironclad as well. Oscar Negrete is hyper aggressive, however, and whatever his ceiling may be, I won’t mind tuning in to watch him reach it.
Originally, Oscar Negrete was set to meet former titleholder Randy Caballero, but an injury to Cabellero gave him this much easier assignment instead. Post-fight Negrete called Caballero out and I do think that is the right fight for Golden Boy to book next.
Unbeaten Golden Boy prospects junior welterweight Ryan Martin (19-0, 11 KOs), junior lightweight Lamont Roach (14-0, 5 KOs), and lightweight Damon Allen (12-0-1, 5 KOs) all won decisions on the undercard. KeAndre Gibson (17-1, 7 KOs) also won a decision in his first fight back from being stopped in his first career loss against Antonio Orozco.
