José Pedraza's quest to become a three-division world champion is gaining steam.
The veteran more than lived up to his "Sniper" nickname by effortlessly switching to southpaw, frustrating Javier Molina with different angles and tagging him with clean shots all night long to cruise to a unanimous decision win at the MGM Grand Conference Center on Saturday. Judges scored it 99-91, 98-92 and 98-92 all in favor of the Puerto Rican fighter, who believes he took the next big step at junior welterweight.
"I do believe that I'm ready for that world title opportunity," Pedraza said to ESPN+ following his win, adding that he's eager to face the winner of the upcoming bout between unified junior welterweight champions Josh Taylor and Jose Ramirez.
If Pedraza can't immediately face the winner of that fight, he said he'd be willing to try to avenge his September 2019 loss to Jose Zepeda.
The 31-year-old Pedraza (28-3, 13 KOs) looked masterfully sharp in chipping away at Molina and breaking him down with veteran savvy on Saturday night, even flirting with a possible stoppage in the 10th and final round when he caught Molina with a left hand flush. Prior to that, Pedraza wobbled Molina during the seventh round with an overhand left. Both shots came well after Pedraza created swelling under Molina's left eye. By the bout's end, Pedraza had connected on 32 percent of his punches to have his hand raised.
This marked Pedraza's second straight victory at junior welterweight, which is the division he's looking to add hardware to after previously reigning at lightweight and super featherweight.
Co-main event: Efe Ajagba vs. Jonnie Rice; Heavyweight
Ajagba didn't get the knockout he was looking for, but the heavyweight remained undefeated via a unanimous decision (99-91, 99-91, 98-92) victory.
Ajagba landed 32 percent of his total punches to cruise to the victory, however, it's painfully obvious that the 26-year-old is still very much learning on the job and improving his skills as he goes. That being said, ESPN+ reported that Ajagba hurt his hand while sparring leading up to the bout and that could very well be the reason why he wasn't able to put Rice away Saturday night. Still, he improved to 14-0.