There was little drama throughout the ten round match between Ardreal Holmes Jr. on Thursday night. and Hugo Noriega. That is, until the scorecards are read.
Holmes emerged victorious in his homecoming match, defeating the Cuban from Miami by scores of 97-93 on two cards and 96-94 on the third at the Dort Federal Event Center in Flint, Mich. Although the victor was as expected, the scores were closer than the action would have suggested as Holmes barely had to get out of first gear to claim victory.
“It meant everything to me,” junior middleweight Holmes (16-0, 6 KOs) said when asked how he felt about fighting in his hometown of Flint. “Wish I could do it again, I will do better. Back to the drawing board. Wasn’t the best performance, but we got it.”
It was a less explosive outing for Holmes this time than his last fight, when the 2015 US National Amateur champion opened eyes with a second-round knockout of Marlon Harrington last February.
Holmes, 30, controlled the bout from the start with his southpaw jab and movement, using his control hook to turn the corner when Noriega (10-3, 5 KOs) got close.
Holmes never took more than one punch in the fight, which headlined a card on DAZN, but also rarely threw more than one at a time, content to land a punch here and there before returned to his pattern of touching with the right jab to the head and body to keep his opponent at bay. In truth, Holmes never had to do much more than that as the 34-year-old Noriega, who had now lost three of his last five, walked at Holmes without any head movement, making it easy for the master boxer to box his way to. safety.
After that, Holmes asked for fights against top fighters in the 154-pound division, including Erickson Lubin and Jermell Charlo.
“Anyone in the top ten. They see it wasn’t my best performance. come get me I’ve been yelling at the top of the division for the longest time,” said Holmes, who is promoted by Salita Promotions and managed by Split-T Management.
In the co-fight, Joseph Hicks (11-0, 7 KOs) of Grand Rapids, Mich. Ronnie Austion (10-3, 7 KOs) of Las Vegas and defeated him by unanimous scores of 80-72, 78-. 74 and 79-73 in a junior middleweight bout.
