Raymundo Beltran vs Jose Pedraza

Raymundo Beltran’s brief reign as WBO lightweight champion ended at the Gila River Arena in Glendale, Arizona, on 25 August 2018, when Jose Pedraza outboxed him over 12 rounds and took a unanimous decision. Beltran, 37, was making the first defence of the championship he had finally won six months earlier by defeating Paulus Moses. Pedraza, eight years younger and a former IBF super-featherweight champion, entered with a record of 24-1, his only defeat having come against Gervonta Davis. Beltran weighed 134½ pounds and Pedraza 134¼. The official scores were 117-110, 117-110 and 115-112 for the Puerto Rican, who thereby became a world champion in a second weight division.

The contrast in styles was evident from the beginning. Beltran was the heavier-handed pressure fighter, accustomed to walking opponents down and doing his best work when he could establish himself at middle or close range. Pedraza gave him fewer stationary targets than he wanted. He used movement, changes of distance and a steady jab to prevent the champion from setting his feet. The opening round was close, but Pedraza appeared to control the pace, and in the second Beltran spent much of the three minutes following him without consistently getting close enough to work. Pedraza was not attempting to overpower the champion. His objective was to make Beltran take extra steps before every exchange, then score before moving away.

Beltran began to improve in the third and fourth rounds. He was more effective at closing the distance and began to impose some of the physical pressure that had carried him through much of his career. By the fourth, he was forcing Pedraza to work harder to maintain his preferred range, and in the fifth the champion landed some of his more forceful punches of the fight. Pedraza appeared briefly unsettled as Beltran managed to turn the contest into a more direct exchange. The middle rounds were consequently more competitive than the final scores might suggest. Beltran was at his best when he could keep Pedraza occupied and prevent him from resetting at long range, while Pedraza remained most comfortable when he had room to jab, step away and make the champion begin his pursuit again.

Pedraza began to regain command during the second half. His jab became increasingly important in the seventh, repeatedly interrupting Beltran’s advances. The eighth was difficult to separate because Beltran’s pressure and heavier individual punches competed with Pedraza’s cleaner, more frequent work from distance. By the ninth, however, Pedraza was again keeping the champion outside for long stretches. Beltran continued to move forward and had his moments, but Pedraza was making him expend considerable effort merely to get into punching range. Reports from ringside also noted that Beltran had been cut earlier in the contest, adding another difficulty as he attempted to press the younger challenger.

The tenth remained close, with neither man establishing complete control, and the contest entered the championship rounds with Beltran still applying pressure. The decisive incident came in the eleventh. Both men were tiring, and Beltran appeared for part of the round to be enjoying some success, when Pedraza suddenly caught him with a heavy left uppercut. Beltran went down, suffering the only knockdown of the contest. He regained his feet, but Pedraza understood immediately that the champion had been hurt and pressed him hard through the closing seconds. Beltran was forced backwards and had to defend along the ropes before reaching the bell. The knockdown greatly strengthened Pedraza’s position on the scorecards and removed much of the remaining uncertainty about the outcome.

Beltran later acknowledged that the punch had been a good one and believed the knockdown had made an important difference in what he regarded as a close fight. Pedraza, however, still had work to complete in the twelfth and returned immediately to the jab and movement which had served him throughout the contest. Beltran continued forward but no longer had the freshness required to overturn the deficit. Pedraza finished strongly, closing the final round with a combination as Beltran was backed towards the ropes. After 12 rounds, all three judges favoured the challenger, two by the substantial margin of 117-110 and the third by 115-112. There was no dispute over the official winner.

The result represented a notable recovery in Pedraza’s career. He had lost his IBF super-featherweight championship to Davis by seventh-round stoppage in January 2017 and then remained inactive for 14 months. He returned in March 2018, won twice, and within little more than five months had secured another world-title opportunity. Against Beltran, he showed a considerably more measured approach than had been possible against Davis, relying on timing and distance rather than engaging in prolonged exchanges. His reward was the WBO lightweight championship and an immediate position among the leading fighters in the division.

For Beltran, the defeat was a disappointing conclusion to a championship reign that had taken him many years to achieve. He had previously drawn with Ricky Burns in a WBO title challenge in 2013, lost to Terence Crawford the following year, and seen his 2015 victory over Takahiro Ao changed to a no decision. His eventual championship victory over Moses in February 2018 had therefore been the reward for a lengthy and often frustrating pursuit. Against Pedraza, however, persistence and strength were not sufficient. The challenger consistently made him work to find the proper distance, and when Beltran began to close the gap, Pedraza adjusted rather than remaining available for prolonged exchanges. The eleventh-round knockdown settled any remaining argument and completed a disciplined performance. Pedraza’s victory also secured him a lucrative unification contest with Vasiliy Lomachenko later that year, while Beltran’s first defence proved to be the end of the world-title reign he had spent so long trying to obtain.

I thought Jose Pedraza boxed a very sensible fight against Ray Beltran. Beltran had waited years to become a world champion, and nobody was going to out-tough him, so Pedraza didn’t try. He used his feet, changed the distance and kept making Beltran reset before he could get his heavy hands working.

Beltran had spells where his pressure made it uncomfortable, but Pedraza was the cleaner boxer for me. The knockdown in the eleventh, from that sharp left uppercut, settled any remaining argument. Pedraza won 117-110 twice and 115-112.

What impressed me was the discipline. Gervonta Davis had stopped Pedraza and could easily have gone into trying to prove how tough he was mode. Instead, he boxed to his strengths. Beltran wasn’t poor, but he was made to chase too much. At this level, making a pressure fighter take one extra step all night can be enough to take his title.