Frank Martin defeated fellow 135-pound contender Artem Harutyunyan by a close, but unanimous decision in a 12-round bout.
The official scores were 115-112, 115-112 and 114-113. Boxing Junkie also scored it 115-112 for Martin.
Harutyunyan (12-1, 7 KOs) was the busier fighter for much of the bout, which made the fight surprisingly competitive for those who weren’t familiar with the German.
Martin (18-0, 12 KOs) landed many of the hardest punches but he was outworked in a number of rounds, although most were difficult to score.
The Indianapolis fighter had three big rounds: the sixth, when he suddenly unloaded a barrage of effective punches; the 10th, when he fought with more urgency; and the 12th, when Harutyunyan took a knee while he was under assault.
Boxing Junkie gave Martin each of the final three rounds, including a 10-8 12th. That was the difference in the fight on our unofficial card.
Martin was on the attack in the final round but he didn’t land a big shot or series of shots immediately before Harutyunyan took a knee. He had been blinking earlier, which might indicate he had a problem with his left eye.
You can read a full report here.
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Junior welterweight contender Elvis Rodriguez (15-1-1, 13 KOs) of the Dominican Republic stopped veteran Viktor Postol (31-5, 12 KOs) of Ukraine 23 seconds into the seventh round of a scheduled 10-rounder.
Postol, 39, was competitive in the early rounds, fighting behind his jab and landing one-twos with some consistency. He also used his feet to make Rodriguez chase him.
However, by the fourth or fifth round, Rodriguez started to land more and more hard punches to both the head and body that began to break down Postol.
Rodriguez put Postol down with a right hook in the final seconds of Round 6. Then, when the bell rang to start the next stanza, he continued where he left off and Postol couldn’t adequately defend himself.
That’s why the referee stopped the fight, arguably giving Rodriguez the biggest victory of his career.
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Welterweight prospect Freudis Rojas (11-0, 11 KOs) of Las Vegas stopped Diego Santiago Sanchez (19-3, 16 KOs) of Mexico in the seventh round of a scheduled 10-round bout.
The 6-foot-2 Rojas, a southpaw, used his reach advantage and impressive skill set to pick Sanchez apart from the outside and take few punches in return from beginning to end.
Sanchez’s trainer stopped the fight at 58 seconds of the seventh because he was taking too many punishing blows.
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New item: The fight between Nonito Donaire and Alexandro Santiago for vacant WBC bantamweight title, originally scheduled for this card, was moved to the July 29 Terence Crawford-Errol Spence Jr. show.
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Frank Martin is scheduled to face fellow 135-pound contender Artem Harutyunyan on Saturday night at The Cosmopolitan of Las Vegas (Showtime).
The featured bouts on the card begin at 10 p.m. ET / 7 p.m. PT. The main event will take place later in the show.
Boxing Junkie will post the results of the main event and other featured bouts immediately after they end. Simply return to this post and refresh when the time comes.
Full coverage – a fight story, analysis and more – will follow on separate posts the day of the fight and the following day.
Enjoy the fights!
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