Unbeaten bantamweight and UNLV student Max Ornelas had to complete an exam Friday night and, based on his performance, he passed with flying colors.

The 19-year-old Ornelas won an eight-round unanimous decision over Juan Antonio Lopez at the Cox Pavilion in Las Vegas, Nevada.

Ornelas (11-0-1, 4 knockouts), who is a criminal justice major, boxed well behind his jab early. Once he had closed the distance, Ornelas would then let his hands go, scoring effectively with right hands.

Southpaw Lopez did his best work in the fourth and fifth rounds, initiating exchanges and landing occasional lead or counter lefts.

However, the rally by Lopez would be short-lived. The Fort Worth, Texas native didn’t follow up, which allowed Ornelas to counter effectively from ring center. From the sixth round on, Lopez was being tagged repeatedly with an array of uppercuts and straight right hands to the head.

Scores were 80-72 and 79-73 twice for Ornelas, who resides in Las Vegas.

“It’s the best feeling ever to win in my hometown,” said the exciting young prospect.

Lopez falls to 12-4, 4 KOs.

Undercard

In an upset on paper, welterweight Marquis Taylor (9-1 1 NC) won an eight-round unanimous decision over previously-unbeaten Jimmy Williams.

After an even opening round, the taller Taylor began initiating exchanges and landed repeatedly with right hands. In response, Williams (14-1 1 NC, 5 KOs) cut the distance and forced Taylor to trade on the inside, but he still came out on the losing end.

By the sixth round, Williams’ punch output had dropped considerably. He appeared tired, winging wild left hooks and right hands that missed or landed on the shoulders of Taylor.

Scores were 80-72 twice and 79-73 for Taylor, who resides in Houston.

In the opening bout of the beIN Sports broadcast, middleweight Shady Gamhour (7-0, 6 KOs) of Sweden stopped Erasmo Garcia in the third round.

Gamhour, who is trained by Roy Jones Jr., dropped Garcia (5-3-2, 3 KOs) with a barrage of punches to the head. Garcia stood up but was met with more vicious punches, prompting referee Russell Mora to stop the bout at 2:32.

Francisco A. Salazar can be reached by email at [email protected] or on Twitter @FSalazarBoxing

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