Ruiz Remains Unbeaten; Pauldo and Gonzalez Score Solid Wins
In a battle of junior middleweight prospects, Leonardo Ruiz (13-0, 8KO) took the “0” of Raul Garcia (13-1-1, 11KO)
Ruiz took advantage of that three-inch reach advantage by landing the jab to disrupt the rhythm of Garcia. Moreover, he went to the body early with hard hooks under the elbow of his opponent.
Garcia looked off before shifting levels and started attacking the body with short, compact punches. However, he got overaggressive and was sent to the canvas by a hard left hook counter from Ruiz.
Ruiz started to pull away down the stretch with that power jab and painful body shots. Garcia came marching back in the final round with blistering hand speed, but it was too little too late.
One judge scored it 95-94 Garcia, as the other two scored it 96-93, and 98-91 for Ruiz for the split decision victory.
Ruiz looked impressive and showed an overall good boxing skillset. Moreover, he showed why well-known trainer Robert Garcia believes in him.
JUSTIN PAULDO PICKS UP A SOLID VICTORY OVER EDUARDO ESTELA
Lightweight prospect Justin “The Million Dollar Man” Pauldo (16-1, 7KO) kept the winning streak alive with a victory over Eduardo “La Pesadilla (The Nightmare) Estela (14-3, 9KO).
Both fighters were throwing and landing bombs early in the fight. Estela landed hard overhand rights and hooks to the body. Pauldo came forward working behind the jab, and delivered his own share of right hands.
As the fight moved into the middle rounds, The Million Dollar Man used footwork to control the distance before landing some devastating pull-counter right hands.
In round seven, La Pesadilla found the range and landed solid right hands. Pauldo ripped off a flurry of punches before getting deducted one point for pushing his opponent to the canvas.
As the fight came to a close, Pauldo had taken over the fight with speed, accuracy, combination punches, and body shots. The judges scored it 98-91, 97-92, and 95-94 in favor of the young man from Florida.
Pauldo proved why trainer Ronnie Shields speaks highly of him by showing tremendous growth since suffering the first defeat in 2015.
JOHAN GONZALEZ SCORES EARLY STOPPAGE OVER RICARDO VILLALBA
In a battle of veteran junior middleweights, Johan Gonzalez (33-2, 33KO) dished out a one-sided beating on Ricardo Villalba (20-10-1, 8KO).
It became obvious the direction this fight was heading as Gonzalez was landing combination punches with ease. His right hand was money, and the accuracy of the jab was on point. It looked like a sparring session as the Venezuelan continued to punish Villalba into the middle rounds.
Villalba tried to fight back in round five by being aggressive and attacking the body with hard punching to Gonzalez. However, his attack was halted by two devastating right hands that dropped him twice before the referee waved off the fight.
In 2022, Gonzalez shocked boxing fans with a victory over Elvin Ganbarov. Yet, he suffered a unanimous decision defeat at the hands of top-rated Magomed Kurbanov at year’s end. With two stoppage victories over lower-tier opponents, it’s time to step it up and challenge tougher competition.
