Jason Quigley emerged still undefeated after a grueling 10-round middleweight bout with Freddy Hernandez on Thursday via unanimous decision, perhaps the toughest fight of his professional career.
The spirited bout highlighted a Golden Boy on ESPN card at the Fantasy Springs Resort Casino in Indio, California.
Quigley, 29, of County Donegal, Ireland, boxed from the outside during the first three rounds, repeatedly landing crisp left jabs as Hernandez, 39, of Mexico City, trudged forward. But Hernandez opened a cut on Quigley’s left eye in the fourth and began to connect with his right hand.
An accidental head butt cut Hernandez over his right eye in the fifth round, but it didn’t stop the veteran from fighting back and scoring blows. He stepped up his attack in the sixth, putting Quigley under heavy pressure and making him look weary.
The seventh round was Hernandez’s best, as he landed solid left hooks and rights to the head. It looked as if he was turning the fight in his favor, but he could not keep it up.
Quigley, showing commendable resilience, rallied in the eighth, landing sharp right as Hernandez (34-10, 1 NC, 22 KOs) came forward. Despite chants of “Freddy! Freddy!” from the crowd, Quigley (15-0, 11 KOs) continued to land better quality punches and also won the ninth and 10th rounds.
Scores of 98-92, 99-91 and 99-91 in Quigley’s favor seemed overly generous, but there’s no question that he deserved the decision.
In the co-feature, Eddie “Eboy” Gomez (22-3, 12 KOs) boxed his way to a one-sided eight-round decision over Shoki “El PV” Sakai (22-9-2, 12 KOs). All three judges scored the fight for Gomez by tallies of 80-72.
The junior lightweight match was without highlights. Gomez was too fast for Sakai, who walked forward with his hands high but seldom landed a significant punch.
Each round was similar. Gomez, of the Bronx, peppered his Mexico-based Japanese opponent with quick flurries but never went for the knockout.
In the TV opener, Rommel Caballero (4-0-1, 4 KOs) stopped Hugo Padron (3-3, 2 KOs) in the first round of a scheduled six-round junior lightweight bout.
Caballero, 19, of Coachella, California, floored Padron, 32, of Agua Prieta, Mexico, with a left hook soon after the opening bell. When a right to the head dropped Padron again, referee Thomas Taylor stopped the fight at the 1:25 mark.
In other bouts:
Rey Perez (24-10, 8 KOs) rallied from behind to stop Christian Gonzalez (19-3, 15 KOs) at 2:15 of the seventh round of a scheduled eight-round lightweight bout.
Throughout most of the fight, Gonzalez, of Buena Park, California, bulled Perez, of Sindangan, Philippines, into the ropes and pounded away at his head and midsection.
At times, Perez looked close to exhaustion, but he jolted Gonzalez with a series of right uppercuts in the sixth and knocked him down with a left hook to the head in the seventh.
Gonzalez beat referee Lou Moret’s count but was clearly hurt. When Perez buckled his knees with another left hook, Gonzalez’s trainer told Moret to stop the fight.
Featherweight Edgar Ortega (10-1-2, 5 KOs) survived a first-round knockdown to win a unanimous six-round decision over Recky Dulay (11-4, KOs). After the knockdown, Ortega, of Mexicali, bounced back to outworked Dulay, of Samar, Philippines, over the next five rounds.