Fringe junior welterweight contender Pedro Campa defeated journeyman Carlos Cardenas by majority decision, Saturday night, at Jardines del Pedregal in Campa’s hometown of Hermosillo, Mexico.

One judge scored the bout 76-76 while the other two judges turned in scores of 79-73 and 78-75 for Campa, who improves to 32-1-1, 21 knockouts.

Saturday marked Campa’s first fight since October 2019, when he stopped Kenin Betancourt in Round 2. The fight took place almost seven months after Campa fought to a draw against Abner Lopez.

Campa was penciled in to face Adrien Broner, who will fight on February 20, but had to withdraw from the fight last month after testing positive for COVID-19. Broner will instead fight unbeaten Jovanie Santiago in the main event of a Showtime telecast.

From the opening bell, Campa looked rusty and his timing was off, likely due to the long layoff. Cardenas was game, initiating exchanges that connected to Campa’s head and body.

Sensing the fight was close, Campa became the aggressor, attempting to put Cardenas on the defensive. The tactic worked as he landed the more effective punches as both fighters stood and traded in the pocket. Cardenas did find moments of success during the last couple of rounds but Campa did enough to win them.

Cardenas, who is originally from Venezuela and now resides in Mexico City, drops to 26-18-1, 16 KOs.

In the main event of the Zanfer Promotions card, junior featherweight prospect Alan Picasso (14-1, 6 KOs) of Mexico City knocked out Jesus Gomez in Round 2. Gomez, who resides in Nuevo Casas Grandes, Mexico, dropped to 11-3, 8 KOs.

Junior featherweight Jesus Eduardo Ramirez, of nearby Guaymas, knocked out Mexico City’s Francisco Alarcon (10-7-2, 5 KOs) with a left hook to the body in Round 1. Ramirez improves to 15-1-3, 10 KOs.

Lightweight Angel Aleman improved to 7-0, 7 KOs by knocking out Leonardo Flores (2-3, 1 KO) in Round 3.

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Francisco A. Salazar has written for The Ring 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. He can be reached by email at [email protected] or on Twitter @FSalazarBoxing.

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