Arce’s razzle-dazzle leads to a unanimous victory

Kissing, dancing, and even playing matador, Jorge Arce unleashed dozens of punching flurries Saturday night in winning a unanimous decision over Argentina’s Julio Ler in a super-flyweight fight at the Honda Center.

Arce’s aggressive, untiring style overwhelmed Ler, who tried to fashion a rope-a-dope strategy against the World Boxing Council’s former light-flyweight champion.

Mexico’s Arce (46-3-1) never faded, scoring a unanimous decision in the 12-round fight with scores of 117-109, 117-110, 117-110.

“He didn’t come to fight,” Arce said of Ler. “He came to say he went the distance with Jorge Arce.”

Ler (23-2) incorporated some theatrics into his act, planting a kiss on Arce in the seventh round and continually yelling at Arce to encourage his parade of punches. Ler, meanwhile, protected his face with both gloves and continually rested back against the ropes on all four sides of the ring.

Arce responded colorfully to his opponent’s taunts, wiggling his rear end after a sixth-round exchange and dancing.

In the ninth, Arce, who enters the ring sucking a lollipop and wearing a cowboy hat, returned Ler’s kiss on the neck. Ler landed an impressive combination of punches soon after, but didn’t maintain the aggression.

By the 11th, Ler was the butt of Arce’s jokes. Ler slipped while throwing a punch, and Arce feigned liked he was holding a matador’s cape. Seconds later, Arce sent Ler staggering backward to the ropes with an impressive left. Ler sustained another flurry, then apparently faked a right leg injury. Television replays showed him starting to limp after being punched in the head.

Earlier, middleweight Kelly Pavlik of Youngstown, Ohio, put himself in position to fight WBC middleweight champion Jermain Taylor with an eighth-round knockout of Mexico’s Jose Luis Zertuche (19-4-2).

Pavlik (30-0, 27 knockouts) withstood three rounds of Zertuche’s best effort. The Mexico City product landed a good right at the first-round bell, and several stinging lefts in the second and third rounds before Pavlik, the WBC’s top-ranked contender, delivered his trademark big right at the close of the third.

Pavlik used his right to knock Zertuche down in the final seconds of the sixth round, Zertuche stumbling to a neutral corner after standing up. Zertuche had never been knocked down previously.

Less than two minutes into the eighth, Pavlik hit Zertuche with a right that essentially ended the fight. Zertuche’s head slumped forward, referee Raul Caiz rushed to stop the bout, and Pavlik buried one more right to Zertuche’s head as he fell. Zertuche was taken to UC Irvine Medical Center for a precautionary examination.

Glendale super-welterweight Vanes Martirosyan improved to 12-0 with his eighth knockout, a second-round dismissal of Tarzone Washington (9-6).

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lance.pugmire@latimes.com