By Cliff Rold

He wasn’t a familiar name on this side of the Atlantic but 27-year old interim WBA welterweight titlist David Avanesyan got himself in line to be known on Saturday night at the Gila River Arena in Glendale, Arizona. Knocking off a faded warrior once among the best in the world will up his “Q” rating for now.

Avanesyan (22-1-1, 11 KO), 146 ¾, of Pyatigorsk, Russia, banged out a unanimous decision victory and may have given an incentive for 44-year old former three-division champion Shane Mosley (49-10-1, 41 KO), 146, of Pomona, California, to hang them up after a long career. Mosley drops to 3-5-1 in his last ten bouts. Avanesyan now earns a WBA mandated crack at the winner of June’s anticipated Keith Thurman-Shawn Porter fight.

The referee was Wes Melton.

After a first round controlled by his jab and set at his pace, Mosley found Avanesyan more challenging in the next three rounds. Avanesyan warmed to the task and started to sneak in good, hard counters, making a case for the edge in each frame. His cases got stronger as the rounds wore on.

With increasing confidence, Avanesyan started to walk Mosley down. The younger man was beginning to show the physical edge and by the seventh Mosley was clinching to stymie the incoming. In the eighth both men got their shots in but in the final minute it was Avanesyan stunning Mosley with a hard hook.

Grinding away, Avanesyan kept quietly piling up points with the better, harder punches in the ninth and tenth rounds. Mosley lost a point in the latter for a low blow after several warnings earlier in the fight. Mosley came back after the deduction to land some hard shots and make a case for an even round.

Mosley-Avanesyan (4)_1

Mosley had a fiery start to the eleventh but couldn’t sustain the energy. A left to the body from Avanesyan drew a reaction from Mosley who was on the back foot for much of the round from there. Again in the twelfth Mosley got off to a good start but the return fire slowed his effort. Mosley held often and hard for the last two minutes of the fight, occasionally slipping in a big shot to try to steal the round while getting outlanded down the stretch.

The early bursts from Mosley in many rounds weren’t enough to fool the judges as Avanesyan got the deserved decision at a too close 114-113 and twin scores of 117-110.

ON THE UNDERCARD

Arizona - 25-year old super middleweight Shane Mosley Jr. (7-1, 5 KO), 162 ¾, of Pomona, California, provided chief support to his father with a six-round majority decision win over 32-year old Roberto Young (5-8-2, 4 KO), 160 ½, of Phoenix, Arizona. The referee was Tony Zaino.

Young seemed content to lay in wait for counter opportunities for most of the first three rounds. Late in the third, he started to find the holes he needed and had Mosley scrambling to fire back. Young came out in the fourth to engage, landing some wide shots but without any sustained attack.

The fight stayed competitive but Mosley, more aggressive and active, managed to hold his early lead. In the sixth, Mosley hurt Young with a right but couldn’t put him down and settled for the decision at 59-55, 58-56, and an even 57-57.

In the televised opener, 35-year old light heavyweight Dimar Ortiz (11-0-2, 8 KO), 178 ¾, of Venice, California, put a steady beating on a willing but outmatched 40-year old Ricardo Campillo (9-10-1, 7 KO), 178 ¼, of Ciudad Obregon, Sonora, Mexico, for a sixth round stoppage victory. The referee was Wes Melton.

Ortiz battered Campillo but could never quite get him off his feet. The doctor’s took a look at a cut on the eye of Campillo before the fourth but deemed him fit to continue. Ortiz caught him on the ropes in the sixth and was landing freely when Melton called the fight at :25 of the sixth.

It was Campillo’s third consecutive stoppage loss.

The card was televised in the US on CBS Sports Network as part of its “Sports Spectacular” series, promoted by Go Box.

Cliff Rold is the Managing Editor of BoxingScene and a member of the Transnational Boxing Rankings Board and the Boxing Writers Association of America.  He can be reached at roldboxing@hotmail.com