Arnold Barboza Jr. won the battle of junior welterweight titleholders.
Barboza survived a knockdown to defeat Alex Saucedo by a unanimous decision on the Vasiliy Lomachenko-Teofimo Lopez card Saturday at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas.
The scores were 96-93, 97-92 and 97-92.
Barboza (25-0, 10 KOs) outboxed, outworked and outlanded the typically aggressive Saucedo (30-2, 19 KOs), who was game but isn’t the complete boxer Barboza is.
The fighters landed a comparable number of punches but Barboza’s shots were generally cleaner.
Saucedo’s best moment came in Round 7, when Barboza missed a wild punch, got his legs tangled with Saucedo’s and then took a shot to the head that put him down.
The knockdown was initially ruled a slip. However, using Las Vegas’ updated replay rule, a ringside official indicated that Saucedo should’ve been credited for a knockdown and referee Celestino Ruiz ruled it as such.
Barboza is ranked in the Top 10 by the WBC and WBO. With his victory over Saucedo, he almost certainly will move up the ladder another rung.
Saucedo had won two in a row after losing by seventh-round TKO in a title shot against Maurice Hooker in 2018.