Arnold Barboza Wins in Temecula

Arnold Barboza Jr. Wins Battle of Undefeated

By Tarrah Zael

(Photo by Mikey Williams/Top Rank)

TEMECULA-After an 11- month layoff from the ring and late round scares, Arnold Barboza Jr. won by unanimous decision over Danielito Zorrilla and captured the vacant WBO Intercontinental junior welterweight belt last Friday night at Pechanga Casino in Temecula, California.

Barboza (27-0, 10 KO) of South El Monte, California continued his undefeated record with the clear scores of 99-92 and 97-93 twice over Zorrilla (16-1, 12 KO) of Puerto Rico in a sold-out crowd of 2,836.

This was a long-awaited fight for the junior welterweight contender Barboza but he got his time to shine for Top Rank Promotions as the main event. As for Zorrilla, this was his first loss after putting his undefeated record on the line. His attempt to retain his record was short lived after this bout went all ten rounds.

Showing his commitment to the fight, Barboza moved forward using sharp combinations appearing more relaxed in the ring than his opponent. Zorrilla displayed a more tense body and tended to fight on his back feet while fighting on the defense. A connecting hook and uppercut from Barboza clocked Zorrilla on the chin creating a mix up of the two in round two. In the late seconds of the round, Zorrilla connected his own punch on Barboza.

Barboza continued to fight forward and Zorrilla answered with his own combinations in the continuing rounds. Referee Edward Hernandez gave a final reminder to Zorrilla of his unacceptable hitting behind the head in round six. Barboza finished the sixth round by giving off a flurry of punches with no answer back from Zorrilla.

By round six and seven, Barboza continued his punishment with straight punches pushing his opponent against the ropes. With less and less response from Zorrilla, this gave off the impression that he was slowly being broken down by Barboza. In a last effort to gain dominance over his opponent the Puerto Rican puncher powered through some heavy shots shoving Barboza off balance. After regaining his balance, “I was right back to my thing. Shout out to my conditioning. My conditioning was on point,” says Barboza.

“I was a little rusty. It’s been a while. I’m not going to be inactive like that anymore”, says Barboza Jr. in the locker room after his win. Although it was not the performance he would have liked to give, nonetheless Barboza has hopes to fight more consistently in the future.

“If we can’t get a title shot, you know who it is. We want Teofimo. Its either a title shot or him.” Teofimo Lopez (16-1, 12 KO) is set to face Pedro Campa (34-1-1) in Las Vegas on August 13^th.