In one of the best fights of the year, Ireland's John Duddy won a unanimous decision over Yori Boy Campas. The fight was a slugfest for the first six rounds, with Campas landing the harder blows and cutting both of Duddy's eyes. Towards the seventh, Duddy was able to change the pace of the fight and use his boxing skills to outwork the 35-year-old Mexican. Campas, showing his great heart and determination, had a terrific 12th round to close out the fight. After the final bell, he seemed to be in better shape than Duddy. Unfortunately, it wasn't enough. I saw the fight 7 rounds to 5 for Duddy, though I would argue Campas did enough in the 12th round to merit a 10-8 score. The official scores were 115-113, 116-112 and a pretty ridiculous 117-111 in favor of Duddy.
Duddy (18-0, 15KOs) looked very impressive in passing his toughest test to date, and Campas (88-9, 72KOs) showed that even after 20 years fighting as a pro, he still has some gas left in the tank. It was a terrific fight.
On the undercard, Julio Cesar Garcia improved his record to 38-2 with a 3rd round KO of Ernesto Zepeda. At 19 years of age, Garcia is one of the top prospects in boxing.
And last but not least, in the main event of Telefutura's card from Puerto Rico, Alex "El Pollo" De Jesus improved to 11-0 with a ten round decision victory over Antonio Ramirez.