Mayweather vs. Berto undercard results: Fans get money’s worth with exciting prelim bouts

Maybe tonight’s Mayweather-Berto fight doesn’t excite you, but boxing fans got their money’s worth with tonight’s pay-per-view undercard, a rare enough thing these days that it should be celebrated. With two exciting world title fights, knockdowns in all four televised bouts, and a lot of grit and heart on display, Mayweather-Berto wound up being a pretty fantastic show, even if the main event is the expected dud.

This was a rematch of a terrific fight from April 4, where Martinez had home field advantage in Puerto Rico and beat Salido for the WBO super featherweight belt. This fight lived up to all expectations, with Salido relentlessly throwing punches (1,037 punches thrown over 12 rounds) and Martinez bravely eating shot after shot, to the head and body. It was a true war of attrition. Both men were down in round three, though the knockdown of Martinez was more Salido stepping on Rocky’s foot. SB Nation had this one 116-112 for Salido, with official scores of 115-113 for Salido, 115-113 for Martinez, and 114-114, a split draw. There will be a lot of demand for a rubber match after this fight, because this was a thriller.

Jack (20-1-1, 12 KO) was actually the underdog coming into this fight despite the fact that he also came in as the reigning WBC super middleweight champion, with Groves (21-3, 16 KO) having failed in two previous title bids against Carl Froch. Jack put Groves’ record in world title bouts at 0-3 with this win, a competitive but not controversial split decision, which SB Nation scored 116-111 in Jack’s favor. Official scores were 116-111 and 115-112 for Jack, and 114-113 for Groves. Jack dropped Groves in the opening round and had him off balance and hurt, but Groves battled back from there. It was the body work of Jack that really won the fight for him, as he wore Groves out over the distance. A Mayweather Promotions fighter who has turned his career around after a stunning upset loss to a gatekeeper-type fighter in Derek Edwards in 2014, Jack is now in an enviable position as WBC titleholder and is one of the accepted top 168-pound fighters in the world. He mentioned Julio Cesar Chavez Jr and Lucian Bute as potential opponents.

Gonzalez, the veteran and former multiple weight world titleholder, was the solid favorite in this fight, and it looked like it might be easy work for him after a first round knockdown of Oquendo. But Oquendo dropped Gonzalez in round two, and the fight was pretty even after that. SB Nation scored the fight 95-93 for Gonzalez (58-10, 49 KO). The official scores were 94-94, 95-93, and a stunningly wide 98-90, the latter two to Oquendo (26-4, 16 KO) for the majority decision win. It was a bloody fight filled with accidental headbutts and power punches, and quite an entertaining, grueling affair.

In what was a pivotal junior middleweight matchup for these two veteran contenders, Martirosyan (36-2-1, 21 KO) rode a pair of knockdowns to victory by majority decision, with one judge scoring the fight even (95-95) regardless of Smith getting dropped twice, and the other two scoring it 97-91 for Martirosyan. SB Nation scored the fight 95-93 for Martirosyan. Smith (27-8, 12 KO) fought quite well, really, and this was an entertaining bout, with the real difference being the knockdowns. Martirosyan could be in line for a title shot soon, perhaps against new IBF titleholder Jermall Charlo, who trounced Cornelius Bundrage to win the belt this afternoon.