Yves Ulysse Jr vs. Stephen James Claggett II & Óscar Manuel Negrete Padilla vs. Joshua Franco II RBR

Official cards:

Rudy Barragan 80-72
Pat Russell 80-72
Fernando Villarreal 80-72

UD for Esparza

 

I couldn't really tell until the closeup awaiting the scorecard reading, but Vizcaíno is a very pretty girl.

 

Óscar Manuel Negrete Padilla vs. Joshua Franco II, 10 rounds @ bantamweight

 

This is for the NABF* bantamweight title, second defense of Negrete. His first defense was the draw with Franco last October.

(*the WBC's affiliated version of North American belt)

 

She took it so well, too, even though you could see it annoyed her slightly that not one judge gave her that 5th round where she must've known she did enough to nick it, just to be able to say it wasn't a shutout. Clapped for Esparza, very classy. I wanted to climb in the ring and comfort her.

 

Round 1

Negrete is circling to his right and popping in jabs on the belt line. Franco is crouching and twirling in place to square up to Negrete, then lobbing a jab and high arcing right into the guard. Negrete scoring far more effectively with body shots while turning Franco at medium-long range. Slow hacking combos by Franco, caught on the guard as they feel each other out. Lead rights by Franco, blocked, lathering up into a straight volley of stiff jabs and crosses, but nothing getting through cleanly. Negrete using quick footwork, darting halfway in, reining up short, feinting the jab. Negrete parries away Franco's jab with his own. Negrete ducks a sweeping combo and plugs a short light right hand into the sternum. Big whipping left hook on the outer hip by Negrete swarming in. Both miss a couple of flurries off the jab on the inside. Both very cagey, blocking a lot.

10-9 Negrete, close

 

Round 2

Negrete dancing around, working the body, and popping high quick jabs. Franco crouching low, covering up, deflecting shots off the outer rim of his forearms and countering with big uppercuts. Edge in quantity thrown (slightly) and landed (wider margin) to Negrete, but the quality stuff is Franco's heavily loaded and patiently timed counters. A couple of near-misses as the uppercuts whistle just past Negrete's jaw or graze him as he's dancing in throwing straight pot shot flurries up top or whacking the body with a hook on the way by.

10-9 Franco, close

19-19

 

We're flip-flopped. Could be 20-18 either way, hopefully this building tension erupts soon and we get more clarity (and more carnage)