Joshua James Pagan made a robust first impression on his ancestral residence island of Puerto Rico on Saturday, defeating veteran Haskell Rhodes by unanimous determination at Coca-Cola Music Corridor in San Juan.
Pagan (11-0, 4 knockouts) received all ten rounds of their light-weight bout, 100-90, on one card, whereas two judges discovered a single spherical to provide to Rhodes (31-7-1, 16 KOs) to choose scores of 99-91.
The battle was a stable step-up take a look at for the 24-year-old Pagan of Grand Rapids, Mich., who was prolonged the gap in his first ten spherical project, and needed to eat a couple of stable punches from the grizzled veteran, together with a couple of in opposition to the ropes as the ultimate bell rang.
“Haskell Rhodes is a troublesome opponent. I knew coming in he could be very sturdy. I really feel like I made a pair errors in there, I received a bit of too excited once I had him harm however he survived and that was my mistake. I’ve to return to the drafting board and work on that,” mentioned Pagan, a 2021 U.S. Nationwide Champion.
Pagan, who’s 5 inches taller than the 37-year-old Rhodes of Oklahoma Metropolis at 5’10”, survived an early onslaught from the late substitute opponent Rhodes earlier than solidifying management because the rounds progressed. Somewhat than field from distance, Pagan was content material to satisfy Rhodes in the course of the ring, throwing brief punches within Rhodes’ wider pictures to again the shorter fighter up. Pagan landed the most effective punch of the battle within the sixth, when a proper hand rocked Rhodes and put him on the defensive.
The win was the second straight significant win of the 12 months for Pagan, whose final bout was in Might when he defeated the beforehand unbeaten Roger Hilley by unanimous determination.
Rhodes, whose largest declare to fame was being a long-time sparring associate for Manny Pacquiao, sees his two-fight successful streak snapped, shedding for the primary time since his shutout loss final December to Antonio Perez in Miami.
The battle headlined a Salita Promotions card which aired reside on DAZN.
In different outcomes, Juan Carrillo (13-0, 9 KOs) remained undefeated, defeating Gilbert Lenin Castillo (25-6-1, 19 KOs) by unanimous determination of their ten-round gentle heavyweight battle. The scores have been 100-90, 99-91 and 98-92, all for the 32-year-old Carrillo of Barranquilla, Colombia.
Additionally in motion, hometown favourite Kiria Tapia (5-0) received a unanimous determination over Beata Dudek (4-5, 4 KOs) of Hungary. Tapia was credited with scoring a knockdown in spherical one en path to successful by unanimous scores of 60-53 of their six spherical bout.
