By Steve Corbo

In a junior lightweight battle which was the walkout bout on Saturday night’s show in Chicago, two young Chicago prospects, 25 year old Giovanni “Gio” Cabrera-Mioletti and 23 year old Josh Hernandez, battled it out for ten rounds with Gio keeping his undefeated record intact by walking away with a hard fought, split decision victory.

Gio (18-0-0 with 7 KOs) tipped the scales at 131 while Hernandez (9–3 with 7 KOs) weighed in at an even 130. Both fighters came up through the ranks of Chicago’s amateur boxing scene and it promised to be a war from the get-go. By the time these two Chicago rivals stepped into the ring, most of the crowd, who had come to see Ukrainian superstar and undisputed cruiserweight champion, turned heavyweight, Oleksandr Usyk, had left Chicago’s Wintrust Arena. What a shame, because those who stayed behind saw an action packed, closely fought 10 round battle that may well have been the best fight of the night.

It was clear from the get-go that Hernandez was not the slightest bit intimidated by Gio’s undefeated record and that he was there to hand his fellow Chicagoan his first loss as a pro. He nearly did just that. Both fighters were busy throughout and there were two or three rounds that could have gone either way. Gio used his movement to frustrate Hernandez, but give credit to Hernandez. He came to fight, he came to win, and he kept up the pressure for all ten rounds of this barnburner! Although both fighters connected throughout the fight and both had a tremendous punch rate, in the end it was perhaps Gio’s cleaner punches that made the difference. This was a close one and the official scorecards read 96-94 and 97-93 for Mioletti while the third judge had it for Hernandez 96-94.

The “Gio Express” rolls on. Stay tuned to this website dmboxing.com for the next scheduled stop on the road to a world championship.