The WBA's second boxing card streamed on their website was one for the books with plenty of incredible knockouts and an exciting main event.
In an effort to showcase boxing from Latin America, the WBA streamed a card from the Fantastic Casino de Albrook Mall in Panama City, Panama on April 30. In the main event of the night, Rafael Pedroza and Wilner Soto had a slugfest across seven rounds.
Pedroza and Soto started their fight with various exchanges and dozens of punches that landed on each other. Pedroza got the upper hand late in the opening round by throwing a combination that pushed Soto to the corner but was able to avoid getting knocked down. Although Pedroza would have success landing his punches against Soto, Soto refused to get knocked down.
The main event was marred by multiple punches thrown by Pedroza being landing below the belt. Pedroza hit two low blows in the fourth round which prompted the referee to deduct a point from Pedroza. Later in the fight, Pedroza hit a third low blow and was docked another point by the referee. This ultimately did not matter in the end as Pedroza nearly stopped Soto in the seventh round and that alone was enough to convince Soto's corner to decide that he should not fight in the eighth and final round, awarding Pedroza the victory.
The card also featured the return of former world champion Jezreel Corrales, who was making his return to boxing since being knocked out by Alberto Machado in October 2017. Corrales needed less than two rounds to win his comeback fight against Onalvi Sierra. Early in the second round of the fight, Corrales dropped Sierra with a check right hook and after Sierra got back up, the former champion ended the fight with another right hook to immediately knock out his opponent.
Another notable fight result came in the form of the WBA Fedelatin 108-pound title fight between Daniel Matellon and Mario Andrade. Matellon wasted little time in winning the fight as he landed a right hand that caused Andrade's legs to buckle less than 30 seconds into the second round. Matellon landed two more right hands to send Andrade to the canvas and Andrade did not recover by the referee's 10-count, giving Matellon his fifth knockout victory.
Matellon's record now improves to 9-0-2 and is now looking to make a push towards title contention. Entering the fight, Matellon was already ranked in the top 15 of the WBA (No. 8), WBO (No. 14) and IBF (No. 15) at 108 pounds.
Perhaps the strangest result of the night was the first fight that was streamed on the WBA's website: Leosdan Nunez vs. Limber Ramirez for the WBA Fedelatin 118-pound title. Ramirez took control of the fight to start after scoring three knockdowns in the first few rounds. Despite this, Nunez fought back and made a furious comeback to retain the title by split decision with two judges scoring the fight in favor of Nuez 103-102 and the third judge giving Ramirez the win 105-100.
Below are the full results of the event:
- Rafael Pedroza defeated Wilner Soto by TKO after Soto does not come out of his corner to start round 8
- Jezreel Corrales defeated Onalvi Sierra by KO, round 2, 1:00
- Daniel Matellon defeated Mario Andrade by KO, round 2, 0:35 to retain the WBA Fedelatin Light Flyweight Title
- Ricardo Nunez defeated Eduardo Pacheco by KO, round 1, 2:08
- Leosdan Nunez defeated Limber Ramirez by split decision (103-102, 100-105, 103-102) to retain the WBA Fedelatin Bantamweight Title
- Pablo Vicente defeated Luis Diaz Pestana by KO, round 3, 1:09
- John Valencia and Victor Altamar fight to a no contest (clash of heads) in round 2
