Joet Gonzalez remained undefeated following a 10-round split decision over Tijuana’s Rafael Rivera in a close, hard-fought featherweight bout Friday.
The match was the main event of a Golden Boy on ESPN card at the Novo at LA Live in downtown Los Angeles.
Rivera (25-2-1, 1 NC, 16 KOs) attacked the body from the first bell, but Gonzalez’s more accurate blows to the head gave him an edge.
One judge scored the fight 96-94 for Rivera, but the other two scored it 96-94 and 97-93 in favor of Gonzalez (20-0, 11 KOs), a 24-year-old from Glendale, California.
In the co-feature, Seniesa Estrada (14-0, 4 KOs) stopped Jhosep Vizcaino (7-6, 3 KOs) 20 seconds into the third round of a scheduled eight-round flyweight bout.
In the TV opener, Maricela Cornejo (12-2, 5 KOs) stopped Samantha Pill (3-1) 41 seconds into the third round of a scheduled six-round super middleweight bout.