Emmanuel Rodriguez, Yuniel Dorticos advance to face Naoya Inoue, Andrew Tabiti

Nestled in among yesterday’s assorted shows was the latest doubleheader from the World Boxing Super Series, which saw another bantamweight and cruiserweight move on to the semifinals in Orlando.

We’ve yet to see a ranked fighter fall this season at 118 or 140, but Jason Moloney (17-1, 14 KO), the least-known of the bantamweight lineup, had a damn good go at it, fighting #4 Emmanuel Rodriguez (19-0, 12 KO) to a split decision. Moloney took over in the later rounds, but Rodriguez had built up an insurmountable lead on two of the three cards.

Rodriguez now meets the tournament favorite, Naoya Inoue, in the semifinals in “early 2019.”

Up at 200 pounds, #2 Yuniel Dorticos went to his first decision since 2015 in beating veteran Mateusz Masternak. Masternak (41-5, 24 KO) was durable and relentless, as always, but again fell just short against a top cruiserweight in Dorticos (23-1, 21 KO).

Worryingly, the Ring article above claims that Masternak has had double vision since his 2015 loss to Tony Bellew. Not entirely sure he should still be going, although if he can give elite cruisers these kinds of fights with crossed eyes, maybe I’m worrying over nothing. In any event, Dorticos now has TMT product Andrew Tabiti, the sole unranked fighter to advance so far, to deal with.

Earlier in the evening, Season 1 competitor Mike Perez secured a spot as an alternate with a decision over Keith Tapia.