INDIO, Calif. – It was almost two years ago when Eddie Gomez suffered his first defeat as a pro, at the hands of Francisco Santana. The venue that night was the Fantasy Springs Resort Casino in this Southern California desert city.

Rather than fall victim to deja vu, Gomez was able to muster enough offense to come out victorious.

Gomez won a hard-fought 10-round unanimous decision over John Karl Sosa on Friday night. With the win, Gomez improves to 19-1 (11 knockouts) while Sosa drops to 13-2 (6 KOs).

Gomez was the more effective fighter in the first half of the fight, countering Sosa on the inside with multiple combinations to the head and body. Sosa did well initiating exchanges by landing repeatedly with lead right hands to the head.

Both fighters had their moments in the middle rounds, producing a solid ebb and flow where both landed to the head and body.

As the bout progressed into the later rounds, Gomez’s punch output dropped considerably. Sosa was able to score, but was not able to capitalize during the last two rounds as he had done during the middle rounds.

All three judges scored the bout in favor of Gomez, but the 98-92 scorecard for the fighter from The Bronx, New York, did not represent the competitiveness of the fight. The other two judges scored the bout 96-94.

Maldonado-Hovhannisyan fight to split draw

In a competitive, yet foul-filled bout, lightweights Fidel Maldonado and Art Hovhannisyan fought to a 10-round split draw.

Maldonado goes to 21-3-1 (18 KOs) while Hovhannisyan goes to 17-2-3 (9 KOs).

Both fighters had their moments early on in the fight, with Hovhannisyan finding success landing lead right hands to Maldonado’s head. Maldonado did his best work on the inside.

The action stalled in spots when referee Eddie Hernandez would warn both fighters for rabbit-punching or landing below the belt.

Hovhannisyan walked Maldonado down during the middle rounds, initiating each exchange with repeated jabs or lead right hands to the head.

Maldonado scored a knockdown near the end of the eighth round with what looked like a barrage of punches. Hovhannisyan claimed he was pushed down. The knockdown was a wash as Maldonado was deducted a point by referee Eddie Hernandez during the following round for landing a low blow.

One judge scored the bout 96-92 for Hovhannisyan, another judge had the fight scored 95-93 for Maldonado, while the third judge scored the bout 94-94.

In preliminary action:

– Lightweight Joseph Aguirre (13-0, 8 KOs) won by technical decision in the fifth round over Rony Alvarado. A cut opened over Alvarado’s right eye from an accidental head-butt in the opening round and worsened as the bout progressed. The bout was stopped in the fifth round, where Aguirre was comfortably ahead on all three judges’ scorecards, 50-45.

– In the walkout bout of the evening, welterweight Livan Navarro (3-0, 1 KO) survived a second-round knockdown to stop Jesus Sanchez (1-1, 1 KO) at 2:14 of the third round.

– In the opening bout of the Golden Boy Promotions card, super middleweight D’Mitrius Ballard (13-0, 9 KOs) stopped Victor Fonseca (9-8-1, 7 KOs) at 1:42 of the third 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 (CA) Star newspaper, Boxingscene.com, and Knockout Nation. He can be reached by email at [email protected] or on Twitter at FSalazarSalazar.