Mexican contender Oscar Duarte (30-2-1, 23 KO’s), best known for losing to Ryan Garcia in 2023, won a tight contest against American opponent Kenneth Sims Jr. (22-3-1, 8 KO’s) to potentially earn him an opportunity against the super lightweight (140 lbs) division’s current champion; Gary Antuanne Russell (18-1, 17 KO’s). The fight was confirmed as a 12-round WBA final eliminator during the show.
The two fighters headlined a Golden Boy Promotions show on Saturday, August 2nd, 2025, at the University of Illinois in Chicago, Illinois.
The contest between Duarte and Sims proved to be closely contested. While Oscar Duarte sought to control the contest by pressuring, Kenneth Sims sought to use a counterpunching style meshed with prominent jab work to dictate the pace.
In the early rounds, Sims found some success as he used his jab to set the tone. Duarte, in comparison, found his early attempts to pressure stifled by Sims’ jab but began notably working on a core target area; the body.
The first half of the fight was a mixed and competitive affair nonetheless. Landing a hard left hand in the 2nd round, Duarte appeared to be gaining the lead as Sims became more hesitant, and the 3rd round saw Sims receive the most damage up to that point as a six-punch flurry clearly buckled the American.
Round 4 arguably became a swing round as Sims’ counterattacks found their target yet Duarte’s own tendency to fight in the pocket delivered as several uppercuts stunned the American. The 5th round saw Sims potentially move ahead as several landed shots stunned Duarte in turn. The 6th round was more of a standoffish affair, with neither fighter fully impressing nor doing enough to confidently take the round.
In the 7th round, the momentum began to shift in Duarte’s favor.
Realizing his work to the body was paying off and noticing Sims was uncomfortable inside the pocket, Duarte found more success as he pinned the American to the ropes and landed lethal combinations Sims had little answer to. Slowed down, Kenneth Sims failed to muster the same sort of energy as the first half and seemed to revolve into survival mode as Oscar Duarte increasingly became more successful with his pressure, cornering Sims enough times to give the judges the right impression.
The last 3 rounds saw at least 2 go in favor of Duarte whose uppercuts and other power punches landed enough to give the judges the correct impression of who won the fight. Sims did less to offer anything on both an offensive and defensive front, and following the 12 rounds it was unsurprisingly Oscar Duarte who would be announced the winner by majority decision (MD) ― mainly due to his efforts in the latter half of the fight.
Duarte won through scorecards of 115-113, 116-112 with one judge scoring the fight even with a 114-114 score. Having won a WBA eliminator, Oscar Duarte has further become the mandatory in the 140-pound division to potentially pit him against the current incumbent champion, Gary Antuanne Russell, if the WBA decides to order the fight.
Undercard fights:
Featured in the co-main event, American southpaws Regis Prograis (30-3, 24 KO’s) and Joseph Diaz (34-8-1, 15 KO’s) staged a competitive veteran vs. veteran fight that saw them both come into the ring as former world champions past their primes but still hopeful of making an impact in the division. The two engaged in a 10-round fight at super lightweight.
Things started off for the worst for Prograis who got knocked down in the 1st round but remarkably the fighter dug deep to carve out a unanimous decision (UD) win, helped by a debilitating cut that Diaz suffered in the 4th round. With both fighters swinging hard for the fences and landing a multitude of damaging punches, Prograis broke away through what appeared to be the improved use of his jab and ability to land his famed hard left multiple times.
Following the 10 rounds after arguably staging the most exciting contest on the card, Prograis won through scorecards of 98-92, and 96-94 twice [which more accurately reflected the course of the fight].
