The crowd inside the Sands Event Center in Bethlehem, Penn. was treated to a ripsnorter of a main event where lightweights Ivan Redkach and Luis Cruz fought to a majority draw. Their wild brawl headlined another Premier Boxing Champions card on Fox Sports 1, truly personifying the “Toe-To-Toe Tuesdays” nickname.
Redkach was much tougher than his foe likely expected and it wasn’t long before the Ukrainian-born Los Angelino battled back, busting up Cruz’s face and wearing him down. Midway through the eighth, Redkach dropped Luis with a perfect counter left, but Cruz was able to struggle back up to his feet. Redkach scored another knockdown with a few seconds remaining in the ninth, though the shot was more of a cuff behind the head.
Still, it was a pivotal moment in the fight as it scrambled the official scorecards and essentially took a win away from Cruz (22-4-1, 16 KOs). After the dust settled, one judge saw the fight for Redkach 94-93 while the second favored Cruz with the same score. The final official submitted a reasonable score of 94-94, resulting in a split draw.
The middleweight co-feature was thrilling as well but it was Immanuel Aleem from nearby Richmond who won a unanimous decision after eight. New Yorker Johnathan Cepeda gladly stood toe-to-toe with his foe, but in the latter stages of the duel, Cepeda (17-2, 15 KOs) was rocked several times though he was never taken off his feet. Still, as exciting as he made the affair, Cepeda gave away too many rounds and allowed Aleem (16-0, 9 KOs) to win a lopsided verdict via tallies of 79-73 on all three cards.
Junior Castillo (10-0, 9 KOs) edged Kyrone Davis (10-1, 4 KOs) in an exciting middleweight tussle between two unbeaten prospects that opened the FS1 telecast. Castillo scored a knockdown in the fourth when a left hook landed on his foe’s jaw and the Houstonian wound up winning unanimously with scores of 76-75, 77-74 and 78-73.
In an off-TV bout, former UFC fighter Dustin Pague won his pro boxing debut with a unanimous decision after four rounds against Rafael Davis. Pague won via margins of 39-37 on all three scorecards.