Yankiel Rivera (7-0-1, 3 KOs) and Angelino Cordova (19-0-2, 12 KOs) battled to a 12-round majority draw on Saturday night in a clash that had the vacant WBA interim flyweight title at stake at the Caribe Royale Orlando, in Orlando, Florida.

Rivera suffered a bad cut over his left eye from a clash of heads in round three. His corner did an excellent job of patching up the cut.

Phantom Knockdown, Bad Call

It was a messy fight with a lot of head clashes between the two fighters. Rivera was given credit for a knockdown in round four when he grabbed Cordova and threw him to the canvas in a textbook pro wrestling move. The replays showed that Rivera had body slammed Cordova to the canvas, showing that the referee, Luis Pabon, had blown the call by ruling it as a knockdown.

In the fourth round, the referee, Pabon, penalized Cordova for landing a shot to the back of Rivera’s head. There hadn’t been any prior warnings given to Cordova before the point deduction. It was a foul, though.

The Punch Stats Discrepancy

• 115-111: Cordova
• 113-113
• 113-113

Cordova was the more aggressive fighter, landing the harder shots in every round. Rivera used a lot of headlocks and a lot of clinches to neutralize Cordova’s offense. The holding by Rivera interrupted the flow of the fight.

Punch stats

• Yaniel Rivera: 84 landed of 340 thrown for a 25% connect rate
• Angelino Cordova: 82 of 609 shots for a 14% connect rate.

Rivera Hurt in Round 11

Yaniel Rivera, 27, was hurt in the 11th after taking four hard punches late in the round from the wild-swinging Cordova. When the round was over, Rivera looked shaken as he walked back to his corner.

In the twelfth, Cordova attacked relentlessly, throwing looping shots, landing nicely. Rivera chose to repeatedly tie up Cordova, choosing to stall out the round rather than fighting hard. He may have been feeling the effects of getting hurt by the Venezuelan Cordova’s big punches in the 11th. He wasn’t going to take any chances.

“I’m not going to criticize the judges. I did the work, and I thought I won,” said Rivera after the fight.

A Stall for Survival

Cordova landed the harder punches in the fight and was the aggressor throughout. If not for the point deduction for a rabbit punch and the knockdown on a blown call by the referee, it would have been a different fight.  Rivera didn’t do enough to deserve the victory tonight, and the constant holding he did made it evident that he was trying to survive in the later rounds.

“I respect the cards. I don’t agree with the cards. I’ll respectfully take the cards,” said Cordova.