By: William Holmes
The Chelsea inside the Cosmopolitan in Las Vegas, Nevada was the host site of tonight’s Top Rank Boxing on ESPN+ card.
The undercard featured a thrilling WBC Interim Junior Middleweight Title Fight between Patrick Teixeira (31-1) and Carlos Adames (18-1), which resulted in a close unanimous decision victory for Teixeira. A seventh round knockdown secured the victory.
The main event was supposed to be between Andres Gutierrez and Oscar Valdez, but Gutierrez came in an absurd eleven pounds over the limit, and Adam Lopez stepped up on short notice to take on Valdez.
The co-main event of the night was a Super Featherweight bout between Tyler McCreary (16-0-1) and Carl Frampton (26-2).
McCreary he an obvious reach and height advantage on Frampton, who had trouble getting in close in the opening round, but started to apply effective pressure in the second.
Body shots by Frampton had McCreary backing up in the third and fourth rounds, and McCreary looked hurt by a left hook to the body in a back and forth fifth round.
Photo Credit: Top Rank Boxing Twitter Account
Frampton’s body work paid off in the sixth round when a left hook to the liver sent McCreary down. McCreary was able to get back to his feet and weather off a the storm to survive the round.
McCreary came out aggressively in the seventh round and may have stolen it on the scorecards, but Frampton simply out box McCreary in the eighth round.
Frampton stepped on the gas pedal in the ninth round and landed a double left hook to the body on McCreary that sent him to the mat for a second time. McCreary was able to tie up for the remainder of the round.
McCreary clearly needed a knockout in the final round to win the fight, but was unable to do so.
Frampton won the bout with scores of 100-88 on all three scorecards.
The main event was between Adam Lopez (13-1) and Oscar Valdez (26-0) in the super featherweight division.
Lopez took the fight on very short notice, but showed no signs of being intimidated by Valdez and showed a good jab early on and kept Valdez at a safe distance.
Photo Credit: Top Rank Boxing Twitter Account
Lopez landed a left hook in the second round that sent Valdez to the mat, but Valdez was able to get back to his feet and continue fighting on.
Valdez had a good third round that was punctuated with a solid check left hook near the end of the round. Valdez continued to grind out punishment in the fourth round, but Lopez looked like he retook control in the fifth and sixth rounds by keeping Valdez at the end of his jabs and crosses.
Valdez pressed the action in the seventh round, and hurt Lopez near the end of the round with combinations to the body and head. Lopez was taking some heavy shots when the referee inexplicably jumped in and stopped the fight.
It was a questionably quick stoppage, but Oscar Valdez wins by TKO at 2:53 of the seventh round.
