Humberto Soto gets the better of Brnadon Rios
By Bill Tibbs
Matchroom Boxing USA held its first show in Mexico with former world champions Brandon Rios and Humberto Soto squaring off at the Municipal Auditorium in Tijuana on Saturday night.
Rios (35-4-1, 26 KO’s), a former world champion in the lightweight division, and former two-weight champion Soto (68-9-2, 37 KO’s), were both hoping to use a win as a springboard to another big fight and ultimately put themselves in a position to challenge for a world title at some point down the line.
The former world champions battled for the full 12 rounds. But in the end, Soto, who landed the faster, cleaner shots, was awarded for out-hustling the aggressive Rios. Soto won on all 3 judges scorecards with a 119-111, 118-112, 118-112 tally across the board.
On the under card -Lightweight Hector Tanajara Jr (17-0, 5 KO’s) won a TD 5 over Ivan “Striker” Delgado (13-2-2, 6 KO’s). The fight was stopped between rounds 4 and 5 due to a cut suffered by Tanajara and they went to the scorecards. –
Bantamweight Joel Cordova (8-4-2, 1 KO) won a SD 10 over José Briegel “Gallito” Quirino (20-3-3, 9 KO’s). -2016 Olympian flyweight Joselito “Huracan” Velazquez (8-0, 7 KOs) scored a TKO 5 over Kevin Villanueva (10-2-3, 9 KOs). -Middleweight Diego Pacheco (2-0, 1 KO) won a UD 4 over Alberto Aguilar (1-1, 0 KO’s). -Super middleweight Alexis Espino (1-0, 1 KO) scored a KO 2 over Victor Manuel Abrigo (2-2, 1 KO).