“Pretty Boy” Cuevas Retains Title At Championship Fight Series

By Matt Benoliel

July 12, 2019

Derrick “Pretty Boy” Cuevas (21-0-1, 14 KOs)  retained his WBA Fedelatin Welterweight Championship Title after defeating Mexico’s Jesus Alberto “Barretero” Beltran (17-2-2, 10 KOs) via unanimous decision at the Championship Fight Series, Seminole Hard Rock Hotel and Casino, on July 12th. Cuevas, of Rio Piedras, Puerto Rico, returned to his native island to train for the 10-round event. The training paid off and after ten rounds of action, the judge’s scorecards read 99-91, 99-91, and 98-92.  

The scheduled co-main event of the evening, Livan “Machine Gun” Navarro vs. Diego Cruz was called off, and crowd favorite Blake “Bad” Davis (2-0, 1 KO) moved into the spot with his four-round Light Heavyweight bout against Phillip Jean “Centaur” Seide (0-1).  

After an emotional weigh-in with some trash talk between the two fighters, it took Davis all of about thirty seconds to knock his opponent down in the first round.  After returning to his feet, Seide managed to keep up some pressure but ultimately it was Bad Davis who earned the unanimous decision. The only other knockdown in the fight was an accidental slip by the referee James Warring. Showing good sportsmanship, both fighters halted the action while Warring picked himself up. Warring just laughed the incident off. 

The opening bout of the night in the Featherweight division featured Luis “El Chucho” Melendez (4-1) against Eduardo Melendez (5-26). El Chucho controlled most of the action in the first round, out jabbing his opponent and scoring with several left-right combos to the body. El Chucho’s aggression came out in round three, but he was knocked down by a quick counter hook.  Luis recovered and let his hands go more in round four, sending Eduardo reeling around the ring and earning him the win. 

Undefeated Heavyweight and 2-time Olympic Bronze medalist Ivan Dychko (8-0, 8 KOs) continued his path of destruction and his perfect KO record by knocking out Nate Heaven (8-2, 7 KOs) in the second round. While Heaven showed a propensity for inflicting pain, his bombs failed to find their targets. Looking for a one-punch knockout was not in the cards for Heaven, who was already hurt in the first round, prompting the ringside doctor to give him the okay before starting round two.  From there, it was a matter of moments before lights out.  

Another crowd favorite, Super Featherweight Jessy “Beast Boy” Cruz (16-7-1) went a full eight rounds for the first time in his career against Isao Gonzalo Carranza (15-14-1) to win the NBA Continental Featherweight Title.  This was a battle hard fought, with Cruz flooring his opponent four times in the opening rounds. The fourth round was the first that Carranza managed to stay on his feet, placing Cruz in a few uncomfortable moments landing body shots against the ropes. By round five, Cruz seemed to slow down a little, but he was already too far ahed on the cards and won by unanimous decision.

In other bouts, undefeated Jorge DeJesus Romero (14-0) scored an easy TKO victory against Szilveszter Kanalas (14-8) at 2:43 of round 2 in the Super Bantamweight division. A scheduled 8-round featherweight bout between Mussa Tursyngaliyev (9-0, 6 KOs) and Ricardo Nunez (29-9, 23 KOs) was stopped early due to a head butt at 2:17 of round 6.  The judges went to the scorecards and realized a 58-56, 59-55, 60-54 unanimous decision for Mussa.  Finally, Ulysses Diaz, yet another crowd favorite, advanced his record to 11-1 with an easy KO victory over Mike Sawyer (8-12).