Abraham Perez Outpoints Yankiel Rivera To Retain WBA Interim Title

Abraham Perez put Yankiel Rivera down in the second round and kept his interim WBA flyweight title by unanimous decision at Albuquerque’s Kiva Auditorium on Saturday night. Patrick Morley scored it 120 to 107, Raul Caiz Sr. had it 119 to 109, and Nexis Novoa returned 118 to 109. All three gave it to Perez, who had cuts around his left eye to show for a fight he controlled with his feet and his right hand. Rivera spent a good deal of the evening trying to get close enough to do something about either.

It was Perez’s first defence of the belt and his first fight back in Albuquerque since winning it. Perez, 27, and Rivera, 29, were both inside the 112-pound limit. They headed the DAZN card promoted by Salita Promotions, Legacy Promotions and King’s Promotions. Perez went in with 15 wins and seven knockouts and left with his unbeaten record extended to 16. Rivera, who represented Puerto Rico at the Tokyo Olympics, came in with eight wins, one defeat and a draw. He now has a second defeat, with four of his wins inside the distance.

Jonathan González had given both men a measure of where they stood. Rivera had drawn with Angelino Córdova in his first bid for the interim title and lost a unanimous decision to González for the vacant belt in January. Perez took it from González by split decision in Grand Rapids in June. Rivera returned with a win over Francisco Vargas Martínez in September. For Perez, defending in front of his own supporters was another milestone in a comeback that began last year, after a near-drowning in 2024 left him in a coma and interrupted his career.

Rivera began in his southpaw stance and found Perez’s guard with his left. Perez was quicker to get his punches off and landed the right straight down the middle. The challenger’s nose was already bleeding in the early going. In the second, Perez stepped in to punch and moved away before Rivera could answer. He turned the challenger into a corner and got another volley off. Late in the round, a combination that began and ended with the right put Rivera on the floor. Rivera rose promptly and finished the round, but he was still having trouble getting his left past Perez when the fight resumed in the third.

Rivera had more success when he crowded Perez. He could dig hooks to the body at close range and occasionally found room for the left. In the fourth, a clash of heads opened cuts over Perez’s left eyebrow and on the eyelid. Rivera pressed harder in the fifth. The result was a rougher fight, with Perez having to punch in shorter bursts and turn out before Rivera could pin him down. In the sixth, Perez drove him towards the ropes with straight punches, and Rivera was often tied up or caught coming in when he tried to get close again.

A right to the chin sent Rivera stumbling backwards towards the ropes near the end of the seventh. By the start of the eighth, the bleeding around Perez’s left eye had stopped. He was marked across the bridge of the nose as well. Rivera tried boxing right-handed as the fight wore on. The change did little to disrupt Perez, who was still finding him with the jab and the right.

In the ninth, Perez began putting more punches together. The right was still landing, but now hooks and uppercuts followed it. Rivera had spent much of the fight coming forward and by the tenth was being made to give ground. Perez could lead and make him answer, then turn away when the reply came. Rivera kept working through the last two rounds and reached the final bell. The cut man had had a busier night than the scorecards might suggest.

Perez has now won twice at the championship distance. Mexico’s Sergio Mendoza holds the full WBA flyweight title after stopping Ricardo Sandoval in five rounds in Chicago last month. Rivera has gone the full twelve in three attempts at the interim title and has a draw and two defeats to show for them.

I had Perez a clear winner. The right hand put Rivera down, but the feet impressed me. Perez stepped in, landed and turned out before Rivera could set himself to answer. Rivera did his best work with hooks to the body, but he came in on the same line too often. Switching to orthodox still left him walking onto the jab and right hand.

Late on, Perez added hooks and uppercuts behind those straight shots and started taking the fight to Rivera. That’s what I liked most. He’d spent the evening dealing with pressure and had enough to apply it.