Fan favorite fighter Leo Santa Cruz shakes off headbutts to beat Keenan Carbajal in Las Vegas

• Leo Santa Cruz shook off headbutts to bust up Keenan Carbajal in a 130-pound showdown Saturday.
• Earlier in the Premier Boxing Champions show, rising star Jesus Ramos impressed once again.

LAS VEGAS — Combat warhorse Leo Santa Cruz shook off a cut below the eye from an apparent headbutt to defeat Keenan Carbajal at a Premier Boxing Championship show Saturday, inside the Michelob Ultra Arena in Las Vegas.

A partisan crowd mercilessly booed Carbajal when he made his way to the ring, creating the type of energy that could only make Santa Cruz smile as he kept stepping further into the fire as the fight wore on.

Santa Cruz, a legend in this sport with 18 world title fight appearances, has done it all in a storied boxing career in which he has won legitimate championships in four weight classes.

But this weekend, he seemingly had to do even more as he had to defend himself against Carbajal's right fist, his left fist, and that trigger-happy forehead, as Santa Cruz got butted one more time before the third round had even finished.

The fouls just kept coming through the fight, and Santa Cruz's cuts only worsened, but he did not let that deter him from boxing with aggression.

Both fighters finished the bout well, throwing shots like they were spamming special moves on video game controllers, begging the question why we couldn't have had that kind of action from the off.

—FOX Sports: PBC (@PBConFOX) February 6, 2022

But this game — the fight game — is one Santa Cruz continues to operate efficiently in, as he deservedly earned his complete set of 100-90 scores when the three judges returned their cards.

Ramos shows again he is one of boxing's best young stars

Jesus Ramos, one of boxing's most talented young fighters aged 20, showed improvements to his game this weekend at the Michelob Ultra Arena, as he boxed with defensive maturity against Vladimir Hernandez.

Everyone knows Ramos can punch. His highlight reel is a testament to that, as it includes clips that would not look out of place in the knockout of the year compilations.

But against Hernandez, Ramos showed patience, poise, and precision punching as he landed cute right hooks on his opponent's cheeks.

Ramos did not have it all his own way Saturday as the teak-tough Hernandez fought his way back into the bout, and may well have been ahead on the cards when the fighters were throwing slugs in the sixth.

But then Ramos changed into a higher gear, and threw shot after shot with the baddest of intentions, giving the referee no choice but to intervene and wave the fight off. It was all over.

With victory, Ramos advanced his pro boxing record to 18 wins (15 knockouts), and remains unbeaten.

—Al Dawson (@AlanDawsonSport) February 6, 2022

Nery bounces back with a good win, after suffering his first loss

The former two-weight boxing champion Luis Nery rebounded from a seventh-round knockout loss to Brandon Figueroa to put Carlos Cuatro on his butt in the opening three minutes of his super bantamweight bout Saturday.

A straight left planted on Castro's kisser scored a knockdown in Nery's favor early. The Phoenix fighter was grounded for a while, taking many seconds to ensure he stayed up for good when he got to his feet.

—Premier Boxing Champions (@premierboxing) February 6, 2022

There were times in the fight where Nery shined, as he shellacked Castro against the ropes with flurries of shots, however, there were also times when he relinquished the momentum he had fought to build, and thus allowed his opponent chances to score points of his own.

That ultimately may have been what caused him a nervous moment when ring announcer Jimmy Lennon Jr. confirmed the judges had scored the fight as a split decision — much to the bemusement of the Vegas crowd.

Regardless, Nery took the win with scores of 96-93 and 95-94 against 95-94 for Castro.