Andres Cortes took a fairly easy decision win over Eridson Garcia in the main event of Sunday’s Zuffa Boxing 05. The lightweight bout was controlled by Cortes’ ability to work better at various ranges and was aided by Garcia suffering a point deduction after repeated warnings for holding.
The opening rounds were fought at a slow pace, with Garcia looking for perfect opportunities to land shots while Cortes was happy to throw what shots he could to score points. Cortes was able to do his best work on the inside, where Garcia seemed lost and resorted to holding and waiting for the referee to break the fighters.
Garcia suffered a point deduction in Round 4 after repeated warnings from the referee about his holding when Cortes got to the inside. That point deduction actually led to an increased punch output and a sense of urgency from Garcia, which Cortes matched as the fight hit a new gear.
Despite Garcia’s brief explosion of offensive output, he could not navigate the fight when Cortes got inside, which was often, and that was ultimately his undoing.
Round after round, Cortes was able to get inside often enough to outwork Garcia and show the bigger, more impressive moments. Cortes ultimately ended the fight with a 95 to 67 advantage in punches landed.
After 10 rounds of action, the final scorecards were unsurprising, reading 97-92, 96-93 and 95-94.
Cortes, who entered the fight ranked No. 9 by Ring Magazine, No. 4 by the WBO and No. 5 by the WBC, though at junior lightweight, remained undefeated with the victory and stands as one of the top lightweights on the Zuffa Boxing roster.
Garcia suffered just the second defeat of his career, previously losing to Jordan White in a 2023 ShoBox main event.
Other notable results
- Mark Magsayo stopped Feargal McCrory in the fifth round of their lightweight contest. Magsayo, a former WBC featherweight champion, was in control from the jump, with McCrory not having the power to back Magsayo down from a relentless power-punching attack. McCrory, who challenged Lamont Roach Jr. for the WBA junior lightweight title in 2024, was hurt badly in the fourth round and his corner gave him a very short leash heading into the fifth. As Magsayo continued to pour it on early in the fifth, McCrory’s corner called a halt to the action.
- Azat Hovhannisyan picked up a highly controversial majority decision win over Eduardo Baez in what was a fun action fight. Baez landed more shots (179 to 129) throughout the fight and seemed to have done enough to have earned the fight on the scorecards. Unfortunately for Baez, two of the three ringside judges disagreed, with official scores of 95-95, 96-94 and a somewhat inexcusable 97-93 card. Hovhannisyan appeared to have suffered a right arm injury in the first round and was tough throughout the fight, even if the scorecards will be questioned by observers.
- Alexis De la Cerda scored one of the most impressive knockouts in Zuffa Boxing’s young history. De la Cerda baited Ervin Fuller III into walking into a bomb of a right hand to score the stoppage in the third round of their featherweight bout.
- Tony Hirsch Jr. picked up a shocking majority decision win over Robert Meriwether III in a lightweight bout. Meriwether was a standout performer on the Zuffa Boxing 01 card, and the highly-regarded prospect entered Sunday as a -2500 favorite. Hirsch was just the better, more consistent boxer over the course of the fight and walked away with a massive upset on scores of 76-76, 77-75 and 78-74.
