Bally’s Atlantic City Hotel & Casino’s Grand Ballroom: Frency Fortunato displayed his boxing skills, power and grit to withstand a late attack from the well-conditioned and aggressive Bernard Angelo Torres to capture a split decision in a 10-round featherweight bout.
Fortunato, who dropped southpaw Torres in the fourth round, won by scores of 97-92, 95-94 and 94-95 to improve to 14-1 with 10 KOs while Torres suffered his first loss and fell to 16-1 with 7 KOs.
“I definitely think I won the fight solidly, but I respect the judges’ decision,” Fortunato said of his second fight in the US “I admit I lost a few rounds, but no more than that. I was in the best shape of my life going into this fight and I think it showed. I feel very happy about my performance and I think I clearly won. Torres was a good, fast fighter, but he lacked power.”
Torres was surprised by the 97-92 scorecard margin that tipped the fight in favor of Fortunato.
“It was a close fight that could have gone either way,” the 26-year-old Torres said. “But I don’t entirely agree with the 97-92 scorecard. I started slowly and gave away the first four rounds. That cost me the fight. I did better in the second half of the fight, but I should have started better.”
Constantly sizing up the shorter Torres and boxing comfortably off his back foot, the Dominican Republic’s Fortunato attacked Torres with hooks and rights as Torres scrambled in and paid for his aggressiveness in the first half of the fight.
Fortunato dropped Torres with a hard right counter with 40 seconds left in the fourth, the first time Torres had ever hit the canvas. It was a short, compact punch that landed on top of Torres’s head and Torres got up with a sheepish grin at being hit.
Filipino Torres, who has beaten former featherweight champion and countryman Mark Magsayo three times in the amateurs, was a different fighter after that fourth-round setback. He stunned Fortunato with a right counter late in the fifth and buzzed Fortunato again with a left and a right to end the eighth round. It was an impressive turnaround as Torres stepped forward and attacked Fortunato with punches.
Fortunato tested the canvas in the final seconds of the ninth, but referee Mary Glover ruled it a slip that seemed more the result of fatigue than a hit.
The tenth round was the best of the fight when Torres landed a left hand in the first minute of the frame that had Fortunato on the ropes. But Fortunato showed his courage and stood his ground as he landed a pair of uppercuts and then landed bloody right hands on Torres’ nose in the last 20 seconds of the fight to punctuate his close victory.
