Pain in his left arm didn’t stop Azat Hovhannisyan from defeating Eduardo Baez on Sunday at the Meta Apex in Las Vegas, Nevada.
Hovhannisyan showed signs of the injury early and acknowledged it afterward, following the announcement that he had triumphed via majority decision in the first bout of the main broadcast of Zuffa Boxing 05.
The scores for the featherweight fight were 97-93, 96-94 and 95-95.
After a slower first round, more action began to break out in the second, with Baez landing better and more often. Meanwhile, Hovhannisyan was occasionally looking at his left arm or shaking it out. That didn’t stop him from occasionally throwing a jab or hook with the limb.
Hovhannisyan wasn’t looking for a way out of the fight. Rather, he was looking for a way in, continuing to pursue Baez to close off the distance between them in the fourth. Perhaps out of frustration, Hovhannisyan went low in the round; he’d also been warned twice for rabbit punches earlier in the match.
Baez was back in proximity at the start of the fifth, exchanging with Hovhannisyan and taking some flush shots as a result. And when Hovhannisyan began to box on his back foot, Baez walked into a right hand. Hovhannisyan also scored with a nice one-two with about 30 seconds to go, though Baez promptly retaliated with a heavy right cross.
In the sixth, after Baez landed a right hand, Hovhannisyan taunted him by putting his arms out to his side and leaning his chin forward. Hovhannisyan succeeded with several right hands of his own in the seventh. Though the all-out war that was possible given these two fighters’ track records never quite broke out, they continued to trade and land in the eighth round.
Hovhannisyan went extremely low on Baez halfway through the ninth. Baez didn’t take much time to recover. Hovhannisyan seemed to be the one landing the more eye-catching legal blows in the round, and he was the more aggressive and active fighter in the 10th.
Hovhannisyan, a 37-year-old originally from Armenia and living in California, improved to 23-6 (17 KOs). He has now won two straight fights after losing three consecutive bouts: an 11th-round TKO to Luis Nery in one of the best battles of 2023, plus decisions to Alan David Picasso in 2024 and Sebastian Hernandez in 2025.
Baez, a 30-year-old from Mexico, fell to 25-8-2 (10 KOs).
In the prelims:
Featherweight/junior featherweight prospect Alexis De La Cerda retained his undefeated record with a highlight-reel knockout, giving Ervin Fuller III his first blemish in the process. The end came two minutes and 33 seconds into the third round, when De La Cerda landed a big right hand as Fuller threw a right hand of his own. The shot sent Fuller falling forward, down and out. De La Cerda is now 9-0 (5 KOs). Fuller is now 12-1 (6 KOs).
In a battle of unbeaten lightweights, Tony Hirsch Jnr took a majority decision against Robert Meriwether III. The scores were 78-74, 77-75 and 76-76. Hirsch, the son of a former pro fighter, is now 8-0-2 (4 KOs). Meriwether is now 10-1 (4 KOs).
Welterweight/junior middleweight prospect Jorge Maravillo defeated Elias Diaz via fifth-round TKO. While Diaz seemed to have won a majority of the first four rounds, Maravillo hurt him badly in the fifth. Diaz was reeling before finally dropping to the canvas. He beat the count, though soon he was down a second time on a push. Another hard blow from Maravillo led the referee to stop the fight. Maravillo is now 12-0-1 (9 KOs). Diaz is now 15-4 (8 KOs).
Featherweight/junior lightweight prospect Troy Nash won a majority decision over Bryan Rodriguez in an eight-round bout that should have been a unanimous decision. The scores were 80-72, 79-73 and a highly questionable 76-76. Nash is now 7-0-1 (1 KO). Rodriguez is now 8-2 (1 KO).
David Greisman, who has covered boxing since 2004, is on Twitter @FightingWords2. David’s book, “Fighting Words: The Heart and Heartbreak of Boxing,” is available on Amazon.
