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ShoBox Results: Diego Magdaleno Marches On, Yordenis Ugas Tripped Up

Diego Magdaleno stayed unbeaten with a win tonight on ShoBox. (Photo by Tom Casino/Showtime)
Diego Magdaleno stayed unbeaten with a win tonight on ShoBox. (Photo by Tom Casino/Showtime)
Scott Christ is the managing editor of Bad Left Hook and has been covering boxing for SB Nation since 2006.

Diego Magdaleno stayed unbeaten with a stoppage win on ShoBox, but Cuban prospect Yordenis Ugas wasn't so lucky, dropping a highly debatable split decision to unheralded Michigan prospect Johnny Garcia.

Let's start with the co-feature. Garcia (12-0, 8 KO) won, which was an inspiring moment in its way because the seemingly overmatched Holland, Mich., native was specifically brought in to lose and be bad enough to make the mediocre Ugas (11-1, 5 KO) look good in the process.

But it's impossible to say that the scoring isn't at the very least questionable. Ugas appeared to have the fight sealed mostly due to a fifth round knockdown, which swung cards, it would have seemed, as close as they could be at 76-75 for the Cuban. Garcia's workrate, though, turned out to be the difference to two of the three judges. The scrappy battler stayed very busy and as a result was able to sway the judges.

Garcia, 29, was definitely better than expected, a very game fighter who seems like he could have a TV future. Or this could be a total fluke -- he has a defensive indifference and sloppy offensive technique designed to make for counter punch knockouts that we relive on YouTube over and over.

Ugas, 25, has failed to live up to the nonsense hype of being a "Mexican Cuban." Showtime's Barry Tompkins and Steve Farhood were just as easily fooled as Joe Tessitore and Teddy Atlas in January, as they hyped an all-action, in-your-face star-in-the-making and were given a passive counter-puncher who fights not just "like a Cuban" by the stereotype, but in some ways, exactly like a Cuban in the stereotype. I really have no idea who keeps selling these networks this line about Ugas as an exciting fighter, but he's not.

The main event saw 130-pound prospect/contender Diego Magdaleno improve to 22-0 with his eighth stoppage win, as the corner of Fernando Beltran (36-8-1, 20 KO) threw in the towel in the seventh round. The late substitute gave his best, but wasn't fit for 130 pounds and just didn't have enough in his arsenal to combat Magdaleno. He did floor Diego, but all that seemed to do was make Magdaleno mad, as he took over heavy from that point on.

Magdaleno is aiming to land a world title shot by the end of 2012, and he may get there. He's a solid boxer, a good all-arounder, but it remains to be seen what he can do with a better class of fighter.

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