Gabriel Flores Jr. (18-0) dominated every second of every round to score a unanimous decision victory over Josec Ruiz (21-3-3) in the main event of Top Rank's card from the MGM Grand Conference Center Grand Ballroom in Las Vegas.
Flores was boosted to the main event after the original headliner between Jose Pedraza and Mikkel LesPierre was canceled due to a positive COVID-19 test in LesPierre’s camp.
Flores started off fast, using his superb hand speed and boxing ability to keep Cruz from finding any rhythm. It was obvious that there was a severe discrepancy in talent as Flores was never in trouble throughout the 10-round affair.
In the second round, it looked as if Flores would end the evening early as he dropped Ruiz with a straight right hand that followed a debilitating left hook. But Ruiz would escape the round and continue to be outboxed for the duration of the night.
If there was any criticism for Flores it would be that he could have taken out his opponent earlier in the night had he stepped on the gas. Nevertheless, the undefeated 20-year-old demonstrated that he could be one to watch in the lightweight division.
“I see a world title in the next 12 months,” Flores said after winning with a clean sweep of 100-89 scorecards. “That’s my goal, but we have to see what’s out there first. I’m training in Vegas now, and the sparring and training out here has helped elevate my game.”
In other action, Clay Collard (7-2-3) continued to disrupt the rise of the unbeaten prospect by handing David Kaminsky (6-1) his first loss as a professional with a split decision victory in a six-round middleweight bout.
It might be wise to call Collard — who splits his time between MMA and boxing — the “prospect killer” as he has erased another undefeated record with a strong performance against Kaminsky. After handing prospect Raymond Guajardo his first loss with a second-round knockout in February, Collard pressed the action for all six rounds to get the victory over Kaminsky with scores of 58-56, 58-56 and a bizarre 58-56 score for Kaminsky.
Robert Rodriguez improved to 8-0-1 and collected the fourth knockout of his career with a second-round TKO of Adrian Servin (9-1-1) in bantamweight action. After a feeling out round, Rodriguez dropped Servin midway into the second round and then overwhelmed his opponent with punches to get the stoppage at the 2:48 mark.
Victor Rodriguez (3-0) pulled off a clean sweep on the scorecards with a four-round unanimous decision victory over Justin Horsley in super lightweight action. All three scorecards read 40-36.
In a four-round super featherweight bout, Frevian Gonzalez improved to 3-0 with a unanimous decision victory over Jose Martinez (2-1). Scores were 39-37, 39-37, 40-36.