NEW YORK – Aaron Aponte bounced back Saturday afternoon from the lone blemish on his professional record.
The 21-year-old Aponte won an eight-round unanimous decision against Joshua Rivera in the first fight on the Amanda Serrano-Erika Cruz undercard at Madison Square Garden’s Hulu Theater.
Aponte (7-0-1, 2 KOs), of Hialeah, Florida, shut out Rivera (8-2, 3 KOs) by the same score, 80-72, on the cards of judges Ron McNair, Allen Nace and Martha Tremblay. Rivera, of La Mesa, California, has lost two of his past three fights.
Rivera pressed forward for much of their bout, but Aponte consistently landed the cleaner punches to his head and body.
Aponte fought for the first time since his eight-round split draw with Fernando Molina (then 8-0) on the Canelo Alvarez-Gennadiy Golovkin undercard September 17 at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas.
Keith Idec is a senior writer/columnist for BoxingScene.com. He can be reached on Twitter @Idecboxing.