Pedro Guevara couldn’t secure the stoppage win but made things miserable for Miguel Herrera over the course of their ten round contest.
The end result was a landslide unanimous decision victory for former WBC junior flyweight titlist in their ProBox TV main event Wednesday evening at Centro de Eventos Figlostase in Culiacan, Sinaloa, Mexico. Scores were 100-90 across the board for Guevara in their ten-round junior bantamweight contest.
Guevara, who hails from Mazatlan, was levels ahead of Herrera in terms of class and ring knowledge. The former titleholder and still relevant 115-pound contender constantly kept his countryman at the end of his jab and right hand.
The lone moment of adversity dealt to Guevara came in round two. A cut was produced over his eye after he collided with Herrera’s shoulder. Time was called for the ringside doctor to examine the wound before action was cleared to continue.
It was all Guevara from that point onward. Herrera was outgunned but showed a sturdy chin as Guevara landed clean right hands nearly at will. A flush shot in round four snapped back the head of Herrera, who remained upright but failed to make the necessary adjustment to avoid additional punishment.
Guevara cut off the ring and walked down Herrera throughout the sixth. Textbook one-two combinations landed upstairs for Guevara, who later targeted the body as Herrera was cornered in the closing seconds of the round.
Herrera dug deep and landed a clean right hand in round nine. Guevera considerably picked up steam prior to that point but was briefly forced to step back and reset. The former champ did just that, as his jab was on point.
Herrera fell to 22-6-5 (8KOs) with his third straight defeat. There were points where he was on the verge of being stopped but always managed to come back with that one jab or right hand to justify his corner allowing him to go the full ten-round distance.
Guevara advanced to 40-3-1 (22KOs) with the win, his tenth in a row. His last defeat came in an October 2017 title bid versus WBC junior flyweight champ Kenshiro Teraji, who escaped with a majority decision. Guevara’s other two defeats also came in title fights—a twelve-round split decision to John Riel Casimero in their August 2012 IBF junior flyweight title fight and a July 2015 split decision defeat to Yu Kimura which ended his WBC junior flyweight title reign.
Wednesday’s bout was the first in more than nine months for Guevara, who was in line for a title eliminator but saw two separate opportunities fall through.
He was due to face Andrew Moloney, who instead went the WBO route before suffering a 12th round knockout loss to Junto Nakatani in their May 20 vacant title fight. The possibility of a showdown versus former four-division titlist Roman ‘Chocolatito’ Gonzalez was teased for months but never advanced beyond the rumor mill.
Guevara will plan to revisit those plans, if not an outright shot at countryman and lineal/WBC junior bantamweight champion Juan Francisco Estrada (44-3, 28KOs) who is in the voluntary stage of his title reign.
Jake Donovan is a senior writer for BoxingScene.com. Twitter: @JakeNDaBox