Rising middleweight contender Brandon Gonzales remained unbeaten Friday night with a hard-fought split-decision victory against Ossie Duran in an eight-round action-packed fight at Bally's in Atlantic City.
Brandon Gonzales defeated Ossie Duran Friday night, but the decision wasn't popular with the fans at Bally's in Atlantic City, who booed the decision.
Gonzales) (15-0-1, 10 KOs) won 77-75 on two judges' scorecards, while Duran (26-9-2, 10 KOs) won 78-74 on the other judge's card. The crowd in the Grand Ballroom booed at the decision.
Duran, who has claimed in the past that he never gets the benefit of the doubt in close decisions, shook his head when the decision was announced and left the ring.
"We expected an all-out brawl coming in," said the 27-year-old Gonzales, who was fighting on the East Coast for the first time. "The 10-month layoff didn't make it any easier. Virgil (Hunter) said I had to step it up those last three rounds and that's exactly what I did.
"I listened to my corner and stayed composed and let my hands go first. I think it was a great victory tonight. I hired the best trainer in boxing in Virgil Hunter (who also trains unbeaten super middleweight champion Andre Ward) and I just stay composed and listen and you know, we pulled it out."
In the co-main event, former U.S. Olympian Javier Molina tasted defeat for the first time, losing a unanimous eight-round welterweight decision to Artemio Reyes in an all-action bout on Showtime's ShoBox: the New Generation.
Reyes (14-1, 11 KOs) won on all scorecards (77-75, 78-74, 78-74).
"It was a good fight man, we trained hard," said Reyes. "We knew it was gonna be a long fight, you know, eight rounds. Molina is definitely an amateur standout so we knew he'd last. We trained hard, ridiculously hard. It was insane man, I didn't stop punching the whole fight."
Molina (9-1, 4 KOs), from Norwalk, Calif., said, "it was a tough fight but I just didn't feel like myself tonight. No excuses, he came to fight. He was a tough fighter. I just didn't fight my fight. The first few rounds I boxed him easy but after that I just didn't feel my legs under me. I just need to learn from it and do better next time."
