The Boxing Diary

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Sunday, June 24, 2018

Virgil Ortiz Jr. stops Juan Carlos Salgado in 3 rounds

LOS ANGELES (June 23, 2018): Vergil Ortiz Jr. (10-0, 10 KOs), the rising knockout artist and pride of Dallas, Texas, scored a spectacular third-round knockout win against former world champion Juan Carlos Salgado (27-9-1, 16 KOs) in a 10-round super lightweight  fight in main event of the June 23 edition of Golden Boy Boxing on ESPN at the Belasco Theater in Los Angeles. After punishing Salgado for two rounds, Ortiz ended matters at1:52 of the third round with a thunderous left hook to the body.

"I felt I was posed in there," said Vergil Ortiz Jr. "Salgado has a lot of experience, and he showed it. He got me a few times, but I learned from this fight, and I'm thankful for the opportunity. I want to continue facing experienced fighters like Salgado. Obviously, I'm not ready for a world title fight yet, but in two years I will be. The left hook to the body is definitely my best punch. I've been working on it since I was a kid. It's not common for an amateur to be dropping his opponents at only nine years old, but that's what I was doing and what I'm still doing today."

Super Featherweight prospect Hector "El Finito Tanajara Jr (14-0, 6 KOs) of San Antonio, Texas scored an eight-round unanimous decision victory against tough Venezuelan Roger Gutierrez (18-2-1, 15 KOs) in tonight's co-main event. Despite Gutierrez having an awkward style, Tanajara won with scores of 80-72, 79-73 and 78-74.

"He came out swinging, so I had to stay composed in there," said Hector Tanajara Jr. "I had to listen to my corner and stay tight. Every time a round ended, my corner would tell me to not take any risks early in the fight, so I stuck to the game plan in order to win."

Rising 154-pound prospect Ferdinand "Lucky Boy" Kerobyan (9-0, 5 KOs) of North Hollywood, Calif. scored a second-round technical knockout victory against Edgar Garcia (7-17-1, 2 KOs) of Sonora, Mexico in a super welterweight fight that was initially scheduled for six rounds.

"I wanted to show that not only am I powerful, but I'm also very fast," said Ferdinand Kerobyan. "I never consider any opponent easy, especially since anyone in the ring can hurt you if you're not careful. I want a world title in the future, and I'm ready to do what's necessary to get that."

Meiirim Nursultanov (20-0, 6 KOs) of Merki, Kazakhstan scored a sixth-round technical knockout victory against Josue Obando (15-21-1, 12 KOs) of Guadalajara, Mexico in a scheduled six-round super middleweight fight. After dominating Obando in every round, Nursultanov stopped Obando at 1:37 of the final round.

"I wasn't able to finalize matters until the very end of the fight," said Meiirim Nursultanov. "He has a very awkward style, which made me take long to really find him. I'll be back on in August."

Monday, June 18, 2018

Watch: Mercito Gesta vs Roberto Manzanarez – Full Fight



Watch Mercito "No Mercy Gesta" vs Roberto "Tito" Manzanarez - Full fight

Watch Mercito “No Mercy” Gesta (32-2-2, 17 KOs) of San Diego, California won the regional lightweight title against Roberto “Tito” Manzanarez (35-2, 28 KOs) of Phoenix, Arizona. Gesta won a majority decision after 10 rounds of a tactical fight. The scorecards were 95-95 a draw, 96-94 twice in favor of Gesta.

Angel Acosta finishes Carlos Buitrago in round 12

Angel Acosta stopped Carlos Buitrago in the 12th round and retained the light flyweight title at the Coliseo Jose Miguel Agrelot on Saturday night.

Acosta, (18-1, 18 KOs) was getting the better of every exchange as Buitrago was tentative with his offense. It was a shootout on my scorecards in favor of Acosta. He was the aggressor from the get-go and kept Buitrago pinned towards the ropes throughout the night.

It was one of those fights that both fighters were able to handle each other's power. The tendency is that the fight will eventually drag to the later rounds and usually ends up with a decision. In the Acosta-Buitrago fight, it was the accumulation of punches that actually wore down Buitrago.

Buitrago, (30-4-1, 17 KOs) fight mostly on the defensive backing up to the ropes and fought from there which limits his mobility to evade the Acosta's offense. His jab was good but he was not able to follow it through with combinations. At times he did, but can't find its target.

Acosta's lead jab to the body really taking a toll on Buitrago in the later rounds. Acosta was tagging the breadbasket of Buitrago with those jabs to the body.

At the 1:22 mark of the final round, Acosta scored a knockdown as the ropes made Buitrago still on his feet after a series of punches. Buitrago looks okay as referee Luis Pabon yelled the mandatory count. Pabon let the fight continue. Acosta sensing blood finished Buitrago with heavy blows to the head prompting Pabon to stepped in and stopped the fight. Buitrago looks defiant but the referee had seen enough. It was the right call. In my estimate even if the fight continued, Buitrago still loss from the scorecards.

With the win, Acosta continued his knockout winning streak to 18 stoppages. His record improved to 18 wins, one loss. His lone defeat was with Kosei Tanaka of Japan when he lost a decision.

Errol Spence blasts Carlos Ocampo in the first round

Errol Spence Jr. remained undefeated and retained his welterweight title after stopping Carlos Ocampo in the very first round of their match-up, Saturday night at the Ford Center at The Star, Frisco.

Ocampo, 22-1, 13 KOs, was looking good at the opening bell as he was able to land combinations to the body of Spence. But as the fight went on to the dying seconds of the first round, Spence landed a solid punch to the rib cage that put down Ocampo.

The challenger from Baja, Mexico was grimacing in pain and was not able to realize that the round was almost over. All he needed was to beat the mandatory count. But of course, the potent stopping power of a body shot is deadly. I mean, we saw a lot of fighters who were unable to get up. The pain is just too intense that it will take your breath and legs.

Spence improved his undefeated record to 24 wins, with 21 wins by stoppage. Spence was keen to fight the winner of the Garcia-Porter fight.