Cadorette’s 3-1 win over Merritt keeps East vs West 24 buzzing

Jerry Cadorette’s 3-1 win over Kody Merritt did more than add a line to the East vs West 24 results board. It reinforced why Cadorette still belongs in the conversation at left-arm superheavyweight, a lane that often gets less attention than the bigger right-arm title fights.

The bout sat on the June 6 card in Little Rock, Arkansas, at the Statehouse Convention Center, where East vs West packed the show with multiple title bouts and elite supermatches. Cadorette vs. Merritt was listed among the preliminary left-arm superheavyweight matches, alongside matchups such as Tobias Sporrong vs. Alex Kurdecha and Corey West vs. Pavlo Derbedyenyev. In that company, a clean 3-1 result carried real weight.

Cadorette’s profile makes the win even more relevant. Gold’s Arm lists him at 53 years old and 324 pounds, with a 3-6 record, but that record has been built against elite company. His recent and career-level opponents include Kamil Jablonski, Vitaly Laletin, Levan Saginashvili, Alex Kurdecha, Ermes Gasparini, Genadi Kvikvinia, and Michael Todd. That kind of slate is not the path of a protected veteran. It is the path of someone still being tested at the top end.

What stood out against Merritt was the way Cadorette kept the match from turning into a long, grinding swing battle. A 3-1 score in a left-arm superheavyweight pull suggests he was able to establish enough hand control and pressure to keep Merritt from stealing momentum. That matters for Cadorette, whose game has long been tied to raw pressure and a heavy press. In a division where the shoulder line and setup often decide everything, he found the angles he needed.

Merritt brought enough size and experience to make the result meaningful. Gold’s Arm lists him at 52 years old, 337 pounds, and based in Mendon, Utah, with a 2-6 record. His prior left-arm and pro matches included Evgeny Prudnik, Pavlo Derbedyenyev, Kamil Jablonski, Alizhan Muratov, and Corey West. That made this a meeting between veteran superheavyweights, not a showcase between a star and an unknown.

For Cadorette, this looked less like a tune-up than a proof point. He had already been through the sport’s biggest names, and this was another reminder that the left arm still gives him a path to matter on any major card. In a division where the spotlight usually lands elsewhere, a 3-1 win like this keeps his case alive and gives East vs West 24 another result worth talking about.