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CABAZON, Calif. (Feb. 23, 2013) – For the 102nd and 103rd times in its 10½-year history, a previously unbeaten fighter suffered the first loss of his career on ShoBox: The New Generation live on SHOWTIME®.

The latest was Art “Lionheart” Hovhannisyan, of Glendale, Calif., who dropped a close, unanimous 10-round decision to Alejandro “El Alacran” Perez, of Salinas, Calif., in an action-packed main event Friday night at Morongo Casino Resort.

Perez (17-3-1, 11 KOs) outpointed the naturally bigger Hovhannisyan (15-1-2, 8 KOs) by the scores of 96-93 twice and 95-94. There were no knockdowns.

Perez and Hovhannisyan are quite familiar with each other, having sparred as many as 80 rounds in the past. They are pals. But they didn’t perform like it, treating the fans to an entertaining, fast-paced, hard-fought fight that featured numerous heated exchanges

The crowd-pleasing Perez lost his previous ShoBox fights to then-highly regarded prospects Diego Magdaleno and Rico Ramos. Magdaleno is still perfect as a pro; Ramos went on to become a world champion.

“It’s a great relief to finally win one on ShoBox, but I definitely felt I had it,’’ said Perez, who was triumphant despite getting docked a point for a low blow in the fifth. “All the hard work paid off for me. Although this was my first fight in a year, I never stopped training and never quit going to the gym.

“I think I surprised Art with my straight right hands down the middle. I don’t think he expected that. It was something we worked on specifically for this fight. I train hard to please the fans and give them a great show, and I think we gave them a great fight tonight.’’

A bitterly disappointed Hovhannisyan didn’t seem as upset with the decision as he was with himself. “It was a close fight,’’ he said. “I didn’t throw enough punches.’’

Former Bahamian Olympian Tureano Johnson scored a eight round unanimous decision over Willie Fortune in a fight that featured two undefeated Middleweights.

Johnson was dominant as he thew and landed many more punches then Fortune and was extremely accurate and the fight was one-sided as Fortune showed more guts then competitiveness in the bout.

Johnson outlanded Fortune 277-140 and connected on a staggering 59% of his punches

Johnson, 159 lbs of Nassau, Bahamas won by scores of 80-72 on all cards and is now 14-0. Fortune, 157 lbs of Detroit is 15-1

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