Yves Ulysse Jr. has avenged his first and only pro loss with a big win over Steve Claggett.
In the main event of a GBxDAZN Thursday Night Fights card from California, Ulysse scored a unanimous decision win over Claggett (96-94, 97-93, 97-93) to become the new WBA Gold junior welterweight champion. The fight, which was streamed online on Facebook and RingTV.com, is a rematch from their 2017 bout that saw Claggett hand Ulysse his first loss in the paid ranks.
The action was great for the first half of the fight, but unfortunately, technical problems prevented the thousands of fans tuning in to watch the second half. During the portion of the fight that was watchable, Claggett was the more aggressive fighter at times, but Ulysse had been landing the cleaner punches, primarily the right hand upstairs.
The co-main event bout was also a rematch, this time a bantamweight between Oscar Negrete and Joshua Franco for the NABF and WBA International titles. In another competitive fight that saw close to 1,600 total punches being thrown between the two, Franco defeated Negrete by split decision (98-92 Negrete, 96-94 Franco, 97-93 Franco) to walk away with the two titles. The two boxers fought in October 2018 with the match ending in a split draw.
In the opening fight of the main card, Marlen Esparza defeated Jhosep Vizcaino by unanimous decision (80-72, 80-72, 80-72) to become the new NABO women's flyweight champion. Esparsa, fighting for the first time since April 2018, now improves her record to 6-0 as a pro and moves one step closer to becoming a world title contender.
