Jose Benavidez Jr. needed to accept a attract his first bout in over three years, struggling to a stalemate with Francisco Emanuel Torres on the Footprint Middle in Phoenix, Arizona.
One decide had Benavidez successful the bout, 96-94, however the different two had the bout scored even at 95-95.
Benavidez (27-1-1, 19 knockouts) hadn’t been within the ring since struggling his first defeat, a twelfth spherical knockout loss to Terence Crawford in an unsuccessful problem for the WBO welterweight title. He didn’t return in opposition to a comfortable contact, nevertheless.
Torres (17-3-1, 5 KOs) had received 9 straight coming into Saturday’s combat, and confirmed he wasn’t coming to Benavidez’s hometown to put down. Torres, 32, of Buenos Aires, Argentina began rapidly in spherical one, and started to impact Benavidez in spherical 4, touchdown cleanly with straight proper arms.
Benavidez, 29, was aggressive all through, focusing on Torres’ physique with each arms, however his porous protection left the openings Torres wanted to land his brief counter proper arms. Torres recaptured the momentum in spherical 6 together with his counter rights, sparking Benavidez to rally the next spherical.
The bout was the co-featured bout to a Showtime Championship Boxing card that was headlined by Benavidez’s youthful brother, David Benavidez in opposition to Kyrone Davis.
