Curiel settled in after a competitive opening round and began landing the cleaner shots in the middle frames. A right uppercut late in the fourth round shifted momentum, and he continued to find Panthen with sharper work inside as the fight progressed. Panthen remained wild and active, but Curiel’s precision and calm separated him over time.
The clearest moment came late in the ninth round, when a right hand clamped Panthen’s legs and nearly put him down. Curiel followed that up with another strong tenth, opening a cut in Panthen’s right eyebrow and ending the fight in control. Judges scored it twice 97-93 and 98-92.
In the co-feature, Jorge Chavez scored a unanimous decision over Manny Flores in their rematch, avenging a draw from last summer and claiming the vacant California State and WBA Continental USA super-bantamweight titles.
Flores started fast and pressured the action early, but Chavez gradually took over by standing his ground and landing heavier right hands. A sustained surge in the eighth round, highlighted by a flurry of uppercuts, appeared to swing the fight decisively in Chavez’s favor. All three judges scored it for Chavez by margins ranging from 96-94 to 98-92.
Elsewhere on the card, Ruslan Abdullaev continued his fast start as a professional, stopping Eduardo Abreu late in the fifth round of their scheduled eight-round super lightweight bout. Abdullaev dropped Abreu with a right hand in the third and again with an uppercut in the fifth before the referee waved it off with seconds remaining.
John Ramirez took a majority decision over Bryon Rojas in a ten-round super flyweight contest, while Cayden Griffiths remained undefeated with a six-round decision against Lesther Espino. Griffiths scored an early takedown and pressed throughout, but Espino showed durability to hear the final bell.
Middleweight Fabian Guzman ended the night with a sixth-round stoppage of Jose Gabriel Rodriguez, continuing his strong run inside the distance.
It was a long card with uneven moments, but Curiel’s composed main event performance gave the night a clear center, and at least Golden Boy left Palm Desert with a result that made sense.
