Oscar Duarte (30-2-1, 23 KOs) attacked nonstop like a human buzzsaw to grind out a 12-round majority decision over Kenneth Sims (22-3-1, 8 KOs) in their WBA light welterweight title eliminator on Saturday night at the University of Illinois, Chicago.
Duarte wasn’t going to be denied, as he followed Sims around the ring, catching him with shots. The point where the fight seemed to turn around was in the fourth round when Oscar connected with a left hook to the head of Sims that appeared to stun him. From that point on, Sims didn’t show much and couldn’t move as well as he had earlier.
The judges’ scores were 114-114, 116-112, and 115-113.
Undercard results
Former two-time light welterweight champion Regis Prograis (30-3, 24 KOs) went to war with Joseph ‘Jo Jo’ Diaz (34-8-1, 15 KOs), winning a thrilling 10-round unanimous decision in the co-feature bout. It was a fight-of-the-year type of contest that was decided by Prograis’ powerful jab and his boxing ability. Diaz Jr. had Prograis hurt in rounds 1, 2, 4, 6, 8, and 9. The scores were 98-92, 96-94, and 96-94.
Cruiserweight Tristan Kalkreuth (16-1, 11 KOs) defeated his late substitute opponent Devonte Williams (13-3, 6 KOs) by a 3rd-round TKO. Kalkreuth, 23, knocked Williams down with a left to the body in round two. There was confusion with the referee trying to figure out if Williams was quitting after he got back to his feet. He had taken his mouthpiece out and walked to his corner as if the fight was over.
After the referee spoke to him, Williams said he wanted to continue. Before that, Kalkreuth had already celebrated the victory, doing a backflip. The action was allowed to continue for the remaining seconds of the round. In another weird move, Williams chose not to come out for the third round, complaining of an eye injury. He was blinking to show that one of his eyes was injured. The fight was halted at one second into round three.
Heavyweight Joshua Edwards (4-0, 4 KOs) steamrolled over Cayman Audie (4-2, 2 KOs), scoring a lightning-fast first-round knockout. The big-punching Edwards dropped Audie on the canvas. The referee stopped the fight.