By Francisco Salazar

Bantamweight Oscar Negrete has demonstrated in previous fights that he can both box and brawl. With a seasoned veteran in front of him on Friday night, Negrete decided to outbox his opponent.

Negrete outboxed Jose Bustos for 10 rounds, winning a one-sided decision at the Belasco Theatre in Los Angeles, Calif.

With the win, Negrete improves to 15-0, 5 KOs. Bustos, who resides in Mexico City, DF, Mexico, falls to 11-7-3, 7 KOs.

Negrete was coming back-to-back knockout wins in his previous two fights. Bustos entered the fight on Friday having won his previous three fights.

It was mostly all Negrete from the opening bell. Negrete, who is originally from Colombia and currently resides in the Los Angeles suburb of Rosemead, was able to beat Bustos to the punch by initiating exchanges.

There were moments when Bustos was able to use his reach advantage to connect with straight right hands to the head, but mostly fought defensively in an attempt to keep Negrete's offense in check.

Sensing he was down in the fight, Bustos mounted an offense early in round eight, catching Negrete with a series of punches to the head. Bustos seemed to let his hands go, finding success himself when he was first and not looking to counter Negrete.

Negrete snuffed Bustos' rally during the final two rounds, landing a series of right crosses to Bustos' head.

All three judges scored the bout in favor of Negrete, 99-91, 99-91, and 100-90.

Featherweight Emilio Sanchez won a hard-fought eight round unanimous decision over veteran Hugo Partida. Sanchez (13-0, 9 KOs) landed the more-telling punches throughout the fight, especially when both fighters exchanged in the middle of the ring. Partida (20-8-2, 15 KOs) hung in there, even though he was stunned at times from the taller and stronger Sanchez. Partida would land an occasional right to the head or left hook, but was not busy enough to win rounds consistently. Partida was deducted a point in round six by referee Jack Reiss for losing his mouthpiece. All three judges scored the bout in favor of Sanchez, 78-73, 78-73, and 79-72.

Super middleweight Niko Valdes (2-0, 2 KOs) won by knockout at the beginning of the fourth round over Michael Andrews. Valdes landed at will and seemed to stun Andrews (0-2) at least once in each of the first three rounds. At the beginning of the fourth round, a ringside physician, who checked Andrews' nose, which looked fractured, advised the referee to stop the fight. 

Francisco A. Salazar has written for Boxingscene.com since September of 2012 and has covered boxing in Southern California and abroad since 2000. Francisco also covers boxing for the Ventura County (CA) Star newspaper, RingTV, and Knockout Nation. He can be reached by email at santio89@yahoo.com or on Twitter at FSalazarBoxing