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Richard Torrez Jr. showed some new wrinkles in his game as he went to the scorecards for the first time as a pro.

The 2020 Olympic silver medalist went all 10 rounds in a well-earned unanimous decision victory over Guido Vianello. Torrez overcame a four-inch height disadvantage and a cut over his right eyelid to win by scores of 97-92, 98-91 and 98-91 in their Saturday headliner at Palms Casino Resort in Las Vegas, Nevada.

“Tonight taught me they don’t all go down,” Torrez said after his first distance win. “He’s a strong fighter, he’s resilient.”

The crossroads bout was a battle of Olympians at vastly different stages of their career. Torrez, a 25-year-old southpaw from Tulare, California, is a well-educated heavyweight on the rise. Vianello, who represented Italy in the 2016 Rio Olympics, has quickly reached win-or-go-home status at age 30 after already suffering multiple professional defeats.

It was Torrez (13-0, 11 KOs) who fought with the greater sense of urgency right from the opening bell, though not always to his advantage. The 6-foot-2 southpaw pushed the action and fought through Vianello’s constant clinches. Vianello, a 6-foot-6 heavyweight from Rome, enjoyed select moments of success with his straight right hand against an onrushing Torrez.

Vianello (13-3-1, 11 KOs) was warned by referee Thomas Taylor early in the second round to adjust his clinch-first approach to the fight. The advice didn’t take, as he suffered a point deduction less than five minutes into the main event for repeated offenses of the infraction.

Torrez enjoyed a sizable lead through two rounds but failed to make Vianello further pay. Action was stop-and-start in the third, but the best moments were enjoyed by Vianello, who landed several straight rights and an uppercut as Torrez was caught rushing inside.

An accidental clash of heads left Torrez with a cut over his left eye in the fourth. Both fighters were warned for their constant holding, while the crowd also voiced its displeasure over the lack of sustained action. Torrez drew far more favorable reviews when he landed a right hook over the top near the end of the round.

Both men picked up the pace considerably in the fifth round. Vianello slammed home a right hand but was rocked moments later by a Torrez right hook. Another exchange near the final 30 seconds of the round saw Vianello connect to the body and Torrez again respond with a counter right hook upstairs.

Vianello grew tired of the shorter Torrez leading with his head and repeatedly attempted to offset it with a forearm nudge. The tactic drew a warning from the referee, though he adjusted and clipped Torrez with body shots from the outside. Torrez connected with a right hook and left hand later in the frame.

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Both fighters made better use of their respective jabs in the seventh round. Vianello used his stick to capitalize on his considerable height and reach advantage for the first time in the fight. Torrez flicked his right jab as means to set up power shots, though not very often to the desired effect.

The lone other time that Torrez saw the eighth round of a fight ended with his deepest career stoppage to date when he halted Curtis Harper with just 57 seconds to go in their December 2023 clash.

He sought a similar outcome as he landed a right hook to hurt Vianello in the first minute of the eighth. It was a much-needed momentum shift for Torrez as the fight tightened up on the scorecards. Torrez later connected with an overhand left, which badly buzzed Vianello. The visiting Italian barely survived the round but was unstable on his way back to the corner.

Torrez entered uncharted territory as the bell sounded to start the ninth. He went on the attack but a headbutt left him with a cut above his right eyelid. Vianello couldn’t find a way to leverage the situation, as he was still mindful of his heavy-handed foe, other than a one-two down the middle toward the final minute of the round. Torrez closed the frame with a pair of overhand lefts.

Vianello fought the 10th round like a man who trailed on the scorecards. He threw right hands with purpose, which prompted Torrez to box more and offer just enough movement to lessen the incoming impact.

Torrez slammed home a right hook to draw a rise of the crowd with just over a minute left in the fight. A body shot had Vianello hurt but Torrez could not put together that final combination to avoid his first career distance fight.

“He’s an Olympian, I have nothing but respect for him,” Torrez said of Vianello. “I knew it would come out today.”

Torrez made up for Vianello’s greater activity with precision punching. The squat heavyweight landed 92 of 245 total punches (37.6%), compared to 88 of 318 (27.7%) for Vianello, who has now lost three of his past six fights.

Torrez only had one other fight not end in a stoppage throughout his more than five years as a professional. Joey Dawejko avoided that fate, though only because he was disqualified in the fifth round of their clash this past September at Desert Diamond Arena in Glendale, Arizona.

There were moments of adversity presented Saturday night, something which Torrez called for as he makes his way toward the contender stage.

“My shortcomings and my doubts, they push me in the gym,” insisted Torrez. “I have to follow my coaches’ advice.”

The question now is who Top Rank — Torrez's career-long promoter — next puts in front of him.

Whatever decision is made will be just fine with Saturday’s victor.

“I don’t say no to fights,” Torrez said. “Whoever you guys give me, I’m going to say yes.”

Delgado edges Rodriguez via majority decision

The meeting of two of boxing’s most brilliant minds — Hall of Fame trainer Freddie Roach and former IBF junior lightweight titlist Robert Garcia — saw a physically tactical battle come down to the final round.

In the end, it was the Garcia-trained Lindolfo Delgado who edged Roach-trained Elvis Rodriguez via majority decision. Delgado (23-0, 16 KOs), who represented Mexico in the 2016 Rio Olympics, won by scores of 96-94 and 96-94 to overrule a 95-95 tally in their 10-round junior welterweight contest.

The matchup never really caught fire despite the suggestion for a fun action battle on-paper. The slow pace worked to the advantage of Delgado early on, as he patiently poked his jab against the defensively responsible Rodriguez (17-2-1, 13 KOs).

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Action picked up in the fourth round when Rodriguez chose to increase his punch output. The Dominican southpaw felt a sense of urgency as swelling developed around his left eye. Delgado briefly lost his balance after Rodriguez landed a left hand around the Mexican’s high guard.

Rodriguez was the busier fighter in the fifth, after which he held a 42-to-29 edge over Delgado in total landed punches. It came as swelling began to form under his right eye as well. Delgado adjusted and connected with combinations in the sixth, during moments where Rodriguez attempted to load up on his lead hand.

Both fighters exchanged one-twos in the seventh round. Delgado landed the more telling of the two but was later forced to absorb a straight left hand on the chin. He responded with a left hook later in the round but left his guard down long enough to take a straight left and a right hook from Rodriguez.

Delgado paid the price for looking for one big shot in the eighth. Rodriguez was the busier fighter and punctuated the round with a body shot and right hook over the top.

Rodriguez missed out on a huge moment late in the ninth, as Delgado boxed and moved before a straight left hand put him on wobbly legs along the ropes. There was an argument to be made that the ropes broke Delgado’s fall, which should've resulted in a knockdown. The lack of a follow-up by Rodriguez, however, allowed Delgado to fully recover and resume control of the action by round’s end.

Rodriguez’s Hall of Fame trainer Roach suggested pre-fight that his charge would close the show with a right hook. That moment never came close to materializing. Conversely, it was Delgado who hurt a fatigued Rodriguez inside the last minute of the 10th and final round. A pair of left hooks to the body by Delgado closed out the fight as both fighters sweated out the final scorecards.

In the end, the judges liked Delgado’s accuracy (89 of 300; 29.7%) over Rodriguez’s greater punch output (94 of 408; 23.0%). Rodriguez snapped a six-fight win streak as a result, while Deglado remained unbeaten just days ahead of his eighth full year as a pro.

Delgado vs. Rodriguez was previously budgeted to serve as an IBF title eliminator for the No. 2 position at junior welterweight. Sanctioning was removed, however, since the bout was only scheduled for 10 rounds; the IBF requires 12-rounds for its elimination contests.

Mason stops Ornelas after six rounds

There was no place Abdullah Mason wanted to be on his 21st birthday other than in a boxing ring.

The fast-rising lightweight celebrated his transition to adulthood with a one-sided stoppage of late replacement Carlos Ornelas. Mason (18-0, 16 KOs) scored three knockdowns — all courtesy of left hands which caused Ornelas to take a knee in delayed reaction — to force the stoppage prior to the start of the seventh round.

Mexico’s Ornelas (28-5, 15 KOs) hadn’t fought in 16 months prior to Saturday but agreed to replace an unavailable Giovanni Cabrera on barely one month’s notice. His body language during each knockdown suggested that he quickly ran out of answers.

Mason — a Bedford, Ohio native who has now stopped each of his past eight opponents — entered his first scheduled 10-round affair. It was clear that he wouldn’t need that much time to get the job done, though he was tight early and had moments in the fight where he looked for the knockout rather than build toward that moment.

“I felt myself loading up trying to get him out of there earlier,” Mason admitted after the fight “He’s a strong guy and I was looking for a perfect shot. You still have to break these guys down.”

Mason took that key step late in the second round. A left-hand shot landed on the chin of Ornelas, who stepped back before deciding to take a knee. The same sequence occurred in the closing seconds of the fourth round and again near the end of the sixth.

The final knockdown was preceded moments earlier by a left hand which left Ornelas with a cut on the corner of his right eye. An in-ring wellness check conducted by referee Raul Caiz Jr. at the start of the seventh revealed that Ornelas was no longer fit to continue.

Mason — Uncrowned’s top runner-up for 2024 Prospect of the Year — connected on 94 of 227 total punches (41.4%), compared to just 68 of 229 (29.7%) for Ornelas, according to Compubox statistics.

Main card

Heavyweight: Richard Torrez Jr. def. Guido Vianello via UD (98-91, 98-91, 97-92)

Junior welterweight: Lindolfo Delgado def. Elvis Rodriguez via MD (96-94, 96-94, 95-95)

Lightweight: Abdullah Mason def. Carlos Ornelas via seventh-round TKO

Prelims

Junior bantamweight: Steven Navarro def. Juan Esteban Garcia via fourth-round TKO

Featherweight: Albert "Chop Chop" Gonzalez def. Dana Coolwell via UD

Junior middleweight: Jahi Tucker def. Troy Williamson via UD

Junior lightweight: DJ Zamora def. Hugo Castañeda via fourth-round TKO

Junior middleweight: Art Barrera Jr. def. Daijohn Gonzalez via second-round TKO

Junior welterweight: Samuel Contreras def. Robert Jimenez via first-round TKO

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