Santa Maria's Karlos Balderas scores fourth straight win in big Las Vegas decision
May 24—He didn't get the knockout, but Karlos Balderas got the win.
The Santa Maria native won his fourth straight bout since his comeback tour began last year, scoring a unanimous decision Saturday in Las Vegas.
Balderas won the junior lightweight bout via unanimous decision against serviceable Colombian 24-year-old Ruben Cervera on an ESPN+ fight card at Resorts World Las Vegas this past weekend.
It's the fourth straight victory for Balderas since he returned to the ring last August. He had scored knockout victories in his previous three bouts, but couldn't score a fourth against Cervera.
Balderas, the 2016 U.S. Olympian, is now 13-1 in his career with 11 KOs. He dropped Cervera to 13-3 in his career. Cervera has 11 career knockouts and has only been knocked out once in his professional career.
Balderas, the Santa Maria High graduate, knocked down Cervera in the first and third rounds to build an early lead. He won 58-54 on two judges' scorecards and 57-55 on the third.
Cervera swept the final two rounds on all three judges' cards to tighten the margins.
Balderas scored both of his knockdowns against Cervera with strong left-hand counter punches. The 25-year-old Balderas was strong offensively against Cervera, though his defense showed room for improvement later in the fight.
Balderas is now 4-0 over the last nine months since he returned from a nearly two-year layoff last August. After suffering a stunning knockout defeat to Rene Tellez Giron in December of 2019, Balderas switched trainers and promoters, moving from RingStar to Bob Arum's Top Rank and training under Buddy McGirt in Los Angeles. Balderas' corner on Saturday featured his father, Zenon, and his uncle David.
Saturday's bout was the first ever to go to scorecards in Balderas' career after they had previously ended via KO. It was a good opportunity for Balderas to get more ringwork as he had just gone an eight combined rounds in his previous three bouts.
The Tellez Giron loss doesn't look as bad now as it did in 2019. Tellez Giron is 16-2 in his career after beating Balderas in the sixth round in 2019.
Balderas knocked out Aelio Mesquita in the second round in Fresno two months ago after stopping Julio Cortez in the fourth round in November of last year. In his first bout with Top Rank, he knocked out Fidel Cervantes in the second round in August of 2021. Balderas then ended Cervera's three-fight win streak on Saturday.
In the main event, broadcast on ESPN, Janibek Alimkhanuly destroyed previously unbeaten Danny Dignum with a fight-ending uppercut in the second round to win the vacant WBO Interim middleweight world title.
Janibek (12-0, 8 KOs), a 2016 Olympian from Kazakhstan, landed 15 of his final 17 power shots and 21 of 33 overall. Dignum (14-1-1, 8 KOs), from Essex, England, formerly held the WBO European title, but was no match for the sensational southpaw. Janibek knocked down Dignum in the opening round, and it was only a matter of time until the hammer dropped.
In another featured bout, 26-year-old Jamaine Ortiz defeated former world champion Jamel Herring via 10-round unanimous decision in the lightweight co-feature.
Ortiz (16-0-1, 8 KOs), from Worcester, Massachusetts, entered the fight as the betting favorite, but he and Herring (23-4, 11 KOs) fought on mostly even terms in the early going.
In a welterweight bout, Tiger Johnson (4-0, 3 KOs) TKO'd Agustin Kucharski (8-5-1, 3 KOs) with 54 seconds remaining in the third round. Johnson, the U.S. Olympic star from Cleveland, rolled through Kucharski, busting up and bruising the Argentinean veteran.
In a featherweight fight, Adam Lopez (16-3, 6 KOs) scored a unanimous decision over William Encarnacion (19-3, 15 KOs) in eight rounds.
