Heriberto Flores (left) lands a body shot on Dante Jardon in his Oct. 18 unanimous decision win in Puebla, Mexico. Photo credit: JesKat Agencia Fotográfica
Heriberto Flores overcame the awkwardness and questionable tactics of Dante Jardon to claim another win.
The rising prospect remained undefeated after an eight-round unanimous decision over the former title challenger Friday night at the Arena BUAP in Puebla, Mexico. The scores were 79-73, 78-73 and 76-75 for Guadalajara’s Flores, who recently The Ring’s ‘New Faces’ series.
Nothing came easy on the night for the 23-year-old Flores, who was forced to fight off the back foot early on. Jardon, 36, of Mexico City, pushed forward in the first and second rounds, among the few frames where he made an impact.
Flores was able to settle into a groove in third place. He landed counter left hooks and the occasional straight right to Jardon’s head.
Jardon was deducted a point on two separate occasions for hitting Flores in the back of the head. The second incident came after he was briefly rocked by a Flores left hook. However, only one of the deductions was reflected on the final scorecards.
The offense didn’t dampen Jardon’s reckless enthusiasm. He still tried to walk Flores down, but his punch output dropped during the second half of the fight. Flores continued to land left hooks to the head and mixed two-punch combinations to the head and body of Jardon.
The win was the third on the year for Flores (14-0, 11 knockouts). It came after his most impressive performance to date, a ten-round decision over Mexican Olympian Juan Pablo Romero on May 24, 2016.
Flores decision win Romero and now Jardon came after a previous five-fight knockout streak. That run included an impressive eighth-round stoppage of Ve Shawn Owens last Dec. 2 in Mexico City.
The 23-year-old picked up his most impressive win to date as a pro on December 2, stopping former prospect Ve Shawn Owens of Minneapolis in round 8.
Jardon (36-11, 26 KOs) is now 2-4 in his last six starts. The 18-year-old pro is still a serviceable opponent who can pull off the occasional upset. On this particular night, he fulfilled his role in forcing Flores to go eight hard rounds.
Also on the card, flyweight Gabriela Sanchez of Puebla defeated Japan’s Tomoku Okuda (8-7-2, 2 KOs) by decision over 10 one-sided rounds. All three judges scored the bout 100-89 for Sanchez (11-6, 1 KO), who has won her last three bouts.
The show was broadcast live on Televisa and was hosted by Latin KO, led by Oswaldo Kuchle.
Francisco A. Salazar has written for The Ring since October 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 at (email protected)
