Jones Wins Unanimous Decision

San Diego’s Rodney Jones didn’t expect his tuneup for a junior middleweight world title fight to come against a light heavyweight. But when Honolulu’s Jaime Lerma showed up 13 pounds overweight, Jones decided to take the risk.

“I knew he’d be heavy, tough and strong, but I wanted to stay busy,” Jones said.

Although he didn’t stay busy enough to appease the announced Arrowhead Pond crowd of 3,078, Jones did more than enough to please the judges, who awarded him with a unanimous, 10-round decision Monday night.

The fans finally perked up in the 10th when Lerma began to mount a rally. After the decision was announced, the crowd booed loudly.

“I don’t care,” Jones said, referring to the crowd. “The main thing is I stay healthy and win. And that I don’t take too many big shots.”

Lerma (25-8) didn’t throw many big shots until the 10th. Most of the night, he stood in the middle of the ring as Jones (23-2, 13 knockouts) hit him with right jabs and straight lefts.

“He’s a very awkward fighter,” Lerma said. “Being a southpaw, he’s hard to get to. I started too late.”

That might have had something to do with his weight, which Jones estimated at 180 pounds. Lerma showed up for Sunday’s weigh-in at 167, then lost 2 1/2 pounds to make the 11-pound weight differential limit for non-heavyweights in California. Jones, the World Boxing Organization’s No. 1 contender, expects to fight champion Harry Simon or Simon’s challenger by May or June.

In the co-main event, referee Marty Denkin exercised better judgment than Jorge Munoz or the fans when he stopped Munoz’s junior featherweight fight with Agapito Sanchez after the eighth round. From Sanchez’s opening right hand to his last left hook, he dominated Munoz.

The scheduled 10-round fight’s only drama came in the fifth round, when Sanchez caught Munoz (19-9-1) in the groin with a left hook. Sanchez (26-7-1, 16 knockouts), who is notorious for hitting below the belt, had a point taken away by Denkin. But that only slowed him down for a round.

By the sixth round, Sanchez continued his vicious attack on Munoz’s body and left eye, which was sliced open in the fourth round. Munoz’s only decent flurry came in the sixth when he landed a few sharp body punches. Denkin stopped the bout as Munoz stumbled to his corner after the eighth.

Ricardo Maldonado, Sanchez’s manager, announced afterward that his fighter will get a second shot at a world title. In September, Sanchez is scheduled to meet International Boxing Federation champion Vuyani Bungu of South Africa. In 1995, Sanchez lost a 12-round decision to then WBO champion Marco Antonio Barrera.