By Norm Frauenheim
CHANDLER, Ariz. — Joshua Anton had more energy. More power. More patience.
There was more of most everything and perhaps just enough to put him among the top ten ranked junior-middleweights in an Anton victory over Freddie Rojas Friday night in a ProBoxTv bout at Rawhide Events Center.
Anton (15-1) dominated with a comprehensive skillset, scoring a 98-91, 97-92, 98-91 decision over Rojas (15-2), a game, yet overmatched fighter.
Anton’s varied skills allowed him to alter pace and tactics from round to round in a strategy that left Rojas without many ways to counter, In the seventh, he was penalized a point for using an elbow to knock down Anton. In the tenth, he looked weary.
In the end, he looked beaten in a fight on a weekend that promises to showcase the junior-her division. Sebastian Fundora, the fighter many to be the best at 154, fights Ermal Hadribeaj Saturday in Las Vegas.
On the undercard
Rawhide was the right place and name for what happened in a wild third fight. It was raw for as long as it lasted. For nearly four rounds, featherweights Carlos Andres Orona (17-1-1) and Bryan Acosta (21-3) went at each other at an exhausting pace. There was no retreat, just a tsunami of punches from all angles. In the end, Orona survived, knocking down Acosta, who somehow got back on his feat, yet unable to continue..
First bell delivered a contentious, head-rocking eight rounds from junior-welterweights Willmank Canonico Brito (14-11-2) and Heiden Martinez Murillo (19-0), a lanky Dominican, prevailed, scoring repeatedly with a long jab for a unanimous decision.
in the second fight, Omaha junior welterweight Charles Harris Jr. (14-1), who had Terence Crawford trainer Brian McIntyre in his corner, countered a long right hand from Misael Urias often enough to win a unanimous decision.
In the third fight, there was controversy. Split decisions always are, almost by definition. This split was controversial not for who won. Two of the three judges got it right, scoring it 98-92 and 97-93 for James Paulden (21-2) a Texas lightweight who dictated pace and landed of most the punches in beating Rene Giron Tellez (23-6). Yet, somehow, the third judge scored it, 94-92, for Tellez.
