Jose Pedraza Defeats Raymundo Beltran to Win the WBO Lightweight Title in a Mexico Vs Puerto Rico Battle & Remembering Our Fallen “Brother In Boxing” Senator John McCain
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By Rich “Lite It Up” Lopez
Top Rank Boxing showcased another exciting boxing card which was televised on ESPN last night. The spotlight was on tough Mexican Raymundo “Sugar” Beltran, who was making his 1st defense of his WBO Lightweight title. The fight was at the Gila River Arena in Glendale, Arizona. Arizona is the current home state of Beltran, so it was important to Beltran to have his 1st defense there. Despite fighting some of the best fighters in a long career and suffering some tough breaks, Beltran finally won a major world title earlier this year.
He defeated Paulus Moses in a tough fight and was looking to follow this up with another win. His opponent was Jose “Sniper” Pedraza from Puerto Rico. Pedraza was the former IBF World Super Featherweight Champion and suffered his only defeat at the hands of Gervonta Davis early last year. Since then Pedraza moved up the lightweight division with two wins to earn a shot at Beltran. This was a classic Mexico Vs Puerto Rico battle and the fans were treated with a good fight.
As always, Beltran wasted no time starting the fight putting the pressure on Pedraza. Pedraza though was doing a great job of switching stances and landing his quick jabs. As Beltran still kept coming forward, he was getting hit with quick counter punches by Pedraza. As a result of this, in round two, Beltran suffered a cut to his left eye. Round four, Beltran had a nice rally and was busier than Pedraza. From rounds 5-9, Pedraza and Beltran went back and forth with exchanges. Beltran being the aggressive fighter and Pedraza being the counter puncher. Towards the end of the fight, it seemed that the older Beltran was getting tired and Pedraza was the fresher fighter. Pedraza picked up the pace and was really letting his hands go. In round 11, Pedraza landed a nice left uppercut that dropped the bloodied Beltran but Beltran got up and continued fighting. In the final round, both men went at it and landed some good exchanges, however it was Pedraza that closed the show in the final seconds of the fight. It was clear who the winner was. As the decision followed, all three judges scored it unanimously for Jose Pedraza with scores of 117-110 (twice) and 115-112. There was no arguments about the decision and the right fighter won.
With the win, Pedraza has lined himself up with a fight with one of the best pound for pound fighters in the world. That fighter is Vasyl Lomachenko, who is also the WBA World Lightweight Champion. The word is that the fight could take place by the end of the year. Let’s see if Pedraza can keep going with his win streak in the ultimate challenge. Pedraza is now 25-0-1, with 12 KO’s and is now the 5th world titlist from Puerto Rico. As for Beltran, I’m sure we will see him again and when we do, he will always provide us with great action fights. Beltran can keep his head high as he already accomplished his dream of becoming a World Champion.
On a final note, there was a moment of silence and a 10 count for Senator John McCain. John McCain passed away at the age of 81 after his battle with brain cancer. McCain was a big boxing fan and even fought as an amateur boxer himself in the Naval Academy in the 1950’s. McCain also introduced the Muhammad Ali Boxing Reform Act in the late 90’s which was signed into law in 2000. McCain was one of the first people asking for the pardon for Jack Johnson. McCain was an American war hero and will always be remembered.
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