In a clash of fringe junior welterweight contenders, Fidel Maldonado Jr. weathered a fourth round knockdown to win a 10-round split decision over Pablo Cesar Cano Saturday night at the Tostitos Championship Plaza in Frisco, Texas. The bout was the main event of a “Golden Boy Boxing on ESPN” broadcast,

Maldonado, who fails from Albuquerque, New Mexico, improves to 24-3-1 (with 19 knockouts). Cano falls to 30-6-1 (21 KOs).

It was a crossroads clash between two fighters in a need of a win to position themselves towards higher-profile or big-money fights.

The southpaw Maldonado was dropped by a Cano right hand late in the fourth round. Maldonado was not hurt by the punch, pressing the fight and initiating the action during its second half. Maldonado landed the more telling blows during the exchanges as Cano was content to counter.

One judge scored the bout 96-93 in favor of Cano, while the other two judges scored the bout 97-92 in favor of Maldonado, who is now unbeaten in his last six fights.

“It means a lot to have beat Cano, who has fought legends ‘Sugar’ Shane Mosley and Erik ‘El Terrible’ Morales,” said Maldonado after the fight. “This victory feels great and, although I don’t agree with the split decision, I am very happy with the outcome. Cano was as tough as I expected him to be but I hurt (him) with my body shots because that is what made the difference.”

Cano, who resides in the Mexico City area, has dropped two of his last three bouts.

In the co-feature, junior bantamweight Joshua Franco dropped Oscar Mojica en route to an eight-round decision victory.

Franco improves to 11-0 (6 KOs). Mojica drops to 10-3 (1 KO).

Franco, who is trained by Robert Garcia, dropped Mojica in the opening round. Mojica attempted to mount an offense but Franco would snuff out each rally.

Scores were 78-73 twice and 79-72 in favor of Franco.

Several Golden Boy Promotions fighters were also victorious on Saturday evening.

Junior lightweight Hector Tanajara Jr. (10-0, 4 KOs) won a six-round majority decision over Eduardo Rafael Reyes (8-10, 6 KOs). One judge scored the bout 57-57, while the other two judges scored the bout 59-55 for Tanajara.

Hard-hitting middleweight Travell Mazion (12-0, 11 KOs) scored a one-sided unanimous decision over Evan Torres (6-4, 5 KOs). Scores were 60-54 twice and 59-55 for Mazion.

Junior welterweight Vergil Ortiz (6-0, 6 KOs) stopped Ricardo Fernandez (3-6-4) at 2:09 of the first round.

Francisco A. Salazar has written for RingTV since October of 2013 and has covered boxing in Southern California and abroad since 2000. Francisco also covers boxing for the Ventura County (California) Star newspaper, BoxingScene.com and Knockout Nation. He can be reached by email at [email protected] or on Twitter at FSalazarBoxing.

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