Pedraza Wins WBO Belt, Shot at Lomachenko

Pedraza Wins WBO Belt, Shot at Lomachenko

By Gary Kittilsen

The stage was perfectly set for the newly minted world champ Raymond Beltran to put on a show in his inaugural title defense in front of his home crowd in Glendale, Arizona defending his WBO strap against former world champ Jose Pedraza of Puerto Rico.

It took Beltran four tries and 19 years of professional boxing to be called a world champ and Beltran was highly motivated to hold on to that title. Unfortunately, Pedraza was equally as motivated to recapture the title of world champ. Pedraza, a former super featherweight champ lost his title to Gervonta ‘Tank’ Davis back in January of 2017, before jumping up to lightweight and running off two straight victories over mediocre opposition.

Pedraza who is known as the “Sniper” thrived in the role of spoiler and ruining Beltran’s homecoming. The “Sniper” boxed beautifully, firing the jab sharply and accurately in the champs face all night. Beltran pressed hard and was able to keep the fight fairly even, landing clean power shots, lead right hands and slowing Pedraza down with body shots.

Going into the final two rounds the fight appeared to still be in the balance, it was in his title-winning performance against Paulus Moses that he pulled out the decision by dominating the last two rounds of the fight. That was not to be the case on Saturday night. Pedraza dominated the final six minutes, dropping the champ with a perfectly-placed uppercut late in the 11th round, who easily beat the count, but Pedraza subsequently forced the champ into the ropes and landed a barrage of power shots to close out the 11th. The final stanza was more of the same, Pedraza out landed Beltran more than two to one in the 12th, to secure the victory.

In dominating the final two rounds and scoring a knockdown it made the decision obvious and unanimous as two of the three judges scored it 117-10 and the third judge had it a bit closer 115-112 all for Pedraza. who is now a two-division world champ.

Despite a very competitive and entertaining scrap, Pedraza was clearly the winner as the punch stat numbers show. Pedraza landed 160 of 556 shots compared to Beltran who landed 137 of 515. Pedraza dominated the battle of the jabs, outlanding Beltran 62-18.

In capturing the WBO lightweight title “The Sniper” has secured himself a unification bout with Vasyl Lomachenko who is the WBA lightweight champ and considered by most to be one of the top pound for pound fighters in the world. Both fighters are with Bob Arum’s Top Rank Promotions and the fight should be announced in the very near future for December 1st at The Forum in Inglewood, California.