Ardreal Holmes Jr. outboxes Hugo Noriega, wins unanimous decision in Flint homecoming

There was little drama throughout the ten round bout between Ardreal Holmes Jr. and Hugo Noriega on Thursday night. That is, until the scorecards were read. 

Holmes emerged victorious in his homecoming bout, defeating the Miami-based Cuban by scores of 97-93 on two cards and 96-94 on the third at the Dort Federal Event Center in Flint, Mich. Though the victor was as expected, the scores were closer than the action would have suggested, as Holmes barely had to get out of first gear to pull off the victory.

“It meant everything to me,” said the junior middleweight Holmes (16-0, 6 knockouts) when asked how he felt fighting in his hometown of Flint. “Wish I could do it again, I’ll do better. Back to the drawing board. Wasn’t the best performance but we got it.”

It was a less explosive outing for Holmes this time than his last bout, when the 2015 US National amateur champion opened eyes with a second round knockout of Marlon Harrington last February.

Holmes, 30, controlled the bout from the outset with his southpaw jab and movement, using his check hook to turn the corner whenever Noriega (10-3, 5 KOs) got close.

Holmes never took more than one punch in the fight, which headlined a card on DAZN, but also rarely threw more than one at a time, content to land a pot shot here and there before returning to his pattern of touching with the right jab to the head and body to keep his opponent at bay. Truthfully, Holmes never had to do much more than that as the 34-year-old Noriega, who has now lost three of his last five, walked towards Holmes without any head movement, making it easy for the master boxer to box his way to safety.

Afterwards, Holmes called for fights against top fighters in the 154-pound division, including Erickson Lubin and Jermell Charlo.

“Anybody in the top ten. They see this wasn’t my best performance. Come get me. I’ve been screaming at the top of the division for the longest,” said Holmes, who is promoted by Salita Promotions and managed by Split-T Management.

In the co-featured bout, Joseph Hicks (11-0, 7 KOs) of Grand Rapids, Mich. outworked Ronnie Austion (10-3, 7 KOs) of Las Vegas, defeating him by unanimous scores of 80-72, 78-74 and 79-73 in a junior middleweight bout.