Photo by Ruben Cortez/Top Rank
Headlining the UniMas fight card on Saturday, June 25, “Mile High” Mike Alvarado (36-4, 24 KOs) took on Josh Torres (15-5-2, 7 KOs) in an eight-round bout in front of a lively crowd at The Bomb Factory in Dallas, Texas.
The Denver native came into this fight with a mission to rejuvenate not only himself, but also his career and to place himself back into title shot contention. Torres, on the other hand, came into the ring with a mission of his own–to shock and upset the battle-tested veteran and help put his state of New Mexico on the boxing map.
The opening round began slow with both fighters feeling each other out, but Torres was the busier of the two.
The next pair of rounds, Torres would take an early lead by beating Alvarado to punches and avoiding the phone-booth style of fight Alvarado wanted.
In the fourth, Alvarado would begin to find his rhythm and force Torres into a brawl.
The middle rounds were all Alvarado’s as he forced Torres into the middle of the ring for exchanges. Torres may not have had the experience necessary to make the adjustments and instead, stood toe to toe with one of the toughest fighters in the welterweight division.
Heading into the final round it was still a close encounter, but the momentum stayed with Alvarado. The seasoned vet closed the show by letting his hands go, per his reputation of a brawler.
In the end, the judges saw it going Alvarado’s way with scores of 77-75, 78-74 and 76-76, giving Alvarado the majority-decision victory.
Alvarado’s trainer Shann Vilhauer spoke on the performance of his fighter.
“I don’t know what took Mike so long to get started but at the end of the day, he closed the fight the way he should have,” said Vilhauer.
“I think we are gonna look at having another tune up fight and then start looking at the big names again. I’d like to see a Jessie Vargas or a John Molina for Mike in the future,” said Vilhauer.
Alvarado kept an honest perspective of his ring performance. “I’m happy I got the win, but I just felt I wasn’t getting the shots off that I wanted,” said Alvarado.
“Hey, at the end of the day I’m glad I got the win and now I just have to go back to work, back to studying, and back to the ring and see what’s next,” concluded Alvarado.
