Arnold Barboza Wins Top Rank Headliner Easily Over Zorrilla

On Friday night in Southern California junior welterweight contender Arnold Barboza Jr., who had waited nearly 10 years as a pro to make his main event debut, took full advantage of the opportunity in an impressive decision win in the Top Rank Boxing/ESPN main event.

Barboza (27-0, 10 KOs), from South El Monte, California, grinded down Danielito Zorrilla to win his bout in front of a sold-out crowd of 2,836 Friday evening at Pechanga Resort Casino. Ranked No. 8 by the WBO at 140 pounds, he prevailed by scores of 98-92 and 97-93 x 2.

.@JrBarbozaArnold fought fire with fire ☄️@BoostMobile x #BarbozaZorrilla pic.twitter.com/p7hfAWV5u2

— Top Rank Boxing (@trboxing) July 16, 2022

Barboza returned from an 11-month layoff in vintage form, wearing down Zorrilla, who came in as the underdog from Puerto Rico, with a consistent body attack and well-placed right hands. Zorrilla (16-1, 12 KOs), was trailing on the cards late, but did summon a dramatic moment in the final round. This, as he landed a hard right hand that wobbled Barboza, creating one very anxious moment for the Southern California standout. Barboza composed himself and held on for win number 27.

“I was a little rusty. It’s been a while. I’m not going to be inactive like that no more, man. I’m going to be fighting constantly,” Barboza said in the ring to ESPN.

“I was more off balance {in the 10th round}. I was right there. Once you saw me off balance, I was right back to my thing. Shout out to my conditioning. My conditioning was on point. My manager knows, if we can’t get a title shot, you know who it is. We want Teofimo (Lopez). It’s either a title shot or him.”

Make sure to hear our preview of Ryan Garcia-Javier Fortuna Saturday night in L.A. on the “Big Fight Weekend Preview” by clicking play below,

On the undercard Friday night lightweight sensation Raymond “Danger” Muratalla (15-0, 12 KOs) shut out the game Jair Valtierra (16-2, 8 KOs) over eight rounds by identical scores of 80-71. Muratalla, from Fontana, California, dropped Valtierra with a left hook in the fourth and cruised to the win.

Also, former 2021 Olympic Silver Medalist in the heavyweight division, Richard Torrez of Tulare, CA, got his second pro win in under a minute of action. He dropped Roberto Zavala with a one-two combo and stopped him at :58. Top Rank announced Torrez will be right back in the ring next month on their ESPN show August 27th in Tulsa, OK.