Luis Arias and Gabriel Rosado battle to split draw

Luis Arias and Gabriel Rosado had a $10k wager on who would win their middleweight battle, and it turns out neither man had to pay up. After 12 rounds of action the fight went to the cards which were split: 116-112 Arias, 116-112 Rosado, and 114-114, resulting in a split draw. BLH also scored the fight a 114-114 draw.

Arias came out fast, trying to apply constant pressure and power punches on Rosado, and loaded up on big punches that missed fairly often. Arias did manage to land to the body with much better effect though, and his aggression took the early portion of the fight. But Rosado would use his experience to put up a more crafty effort, leaning more towards boxing and moving than getting into a firefight with Arias.

In Round 9 Rosado look like he momentarily stunned Arias and launched an assault on Arias — but one that Arias was able to weather. Following that round Arias came back with some big hooks to the head and body to take a couple of the later rounds on my card. Finally, in the 12th round an accidental head clash caused a cut over Arias’ right eye and he didn’t react to it well. Arias would spend the final round pawing at the blood running into his eye as Rosado tried to jump on his compromised opponent.

But in the end both fighters wound up dissatisfied with the result, both believing their deserved to win tonight. Arias goes to 18-1-1 while Rosado goes to 24-11-1.