After dominating the flyweight division for three years, Juan Francisco Estrada made a successful debut at junior bantamweight, claiming a 10-round unanimous decision over Raymond Tabugon at the Estadio Francisco Leon Garcia in Puerto Penasco, Sonora, Mexico, on Saturday.

All three judges scored the bout a shutout at 100-90.

Estrada had not fought since September of last year when he stopped Hernan “Tyson” Marquez in 10 rounds and the former unified flyweight titleholder was rusty from the opening bell.

By the third round, however, Estrada began to find his rhythm and connected repeatedly with right hands to the head of Tabugon, who had lost two of his last three fights.

Estrada pressed the action into the middle rounds and repeatedly put Tabugon on the defensive. The Filipino fighter attempted to counter to the head and found some success, but he was unable to keep the superior fighter at bay.

The pace slowed in the second half, although Estrada remained in control. There were moments when the Mexican star could have opened up, but he was content to box from the outside until the final bell.

The 26-year-old Estrada (34-2, 24 KOs) has won eight fights in a row since losing a 12-round unanimous decision to Roman “Chocolatito” Gonzalez in November 2011. Two weeks ago, he vacated the WBA and WBO flyweight titles and announced his intentions to compete officially at 115 pounds.

In the opening bout of the beIN Sports en Espanol broadcast, junior featherweight Emanuel Navarrete won a one-sided 10-round decision over Martin Casillas.

Navarrete improves to 16-1 (13 KOs), while Casillas drops to 15-9-1 (9 KOs).

Casillas did his best to get on the inside of the taller Navarrete’s reach but was repeatedly tagged with combinations.

All three judges scored the bout in favor of Navarrete: 99-91, 99-90, and 100-90.

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 (Calif.) Star newspaper, Boxingscene.com, and Knockout Nation. He can be reached by email at [email protected] or on Twitter @FSalazarBoxing

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