Edgar Berlanga (22-0, 17 KOs) stayed unbeaten with a sixth-round knockout win over Padraig McCrory (18-1, 9 KOs) in super middleweight action at the Caribe Royale in Orlando, Florida.
McCrory’s corner threw in the towel after he was knocked down with a thunderous right hand from Berlanga in the sixth. The fight was stopped at 2:44 of round six.
Berlanga looked timid in the first two rounds. He got more confident after elbowing McCrory to the head in the third and staggering him moments later.
Berlanga calls out Canelo
“He’s a veteran. I didn’t want to go the stoppage until I knew he was hurt,” said Berlanga about McCrory, who only has 18 fights under his belt, not a veteran in the true sense. “I want Canelo next. Eddie [Hearn] right there, he’s going to make it happen.”
B247 will give updates below on tonight’s card.
Lightweight contender Andy Cruz (3-0, 1 KOs) boxed his way to a wide ten-round unanimous decision against the tough Brayan Zamarripa (14-3, 5 KOs). The judges’ scores were 100-90, 100-90, and 100-90.
Cruz showed good power, landing hard right hands and jabs to the head and body, bloodying Zamarripa’s nose and stunning a few times in the fight.
The 2020 Cuban Olympic gold medalist Cruz attempted to finish Zamarripa in the championship rounds, but he took his power well. Cruz’s absence of combination punching allowed his opponent to survive the distance.
Cruz will have to change the way he fights if he wants to become a superstar in the sport because he’s too much like a Mayweather potshot fighter, and that style doesn’t work well with this era’s fans, who prefer action.
Welterweight Shakhram Giyasov (15-0, 9 KOs) beat the tough Mexican Pablo Cesar Cano (35-9-1, 25 KOs) by an 11th-round technical decision. Cano hurt his ankle in the 11th after tripping while throwing a punch, causing him to turn his ankle while falling. The scores were 109-99, 109-99 and 109-99.
Giyasov knocked Cano down with a hard left to the body in round three, but he couldn’t finish the job. Cano recovered quickly to finish the round strong.
The fight was much closer than the three judges’ scoring, as Cano was pressing the action the entire contest, landing the harder shots against a cautious-looking Giyasov.
Going into this fight, this was supposed to have been a showcase match for Giyasov, but the veteran Cano really put it on him, giving him a harder match than many had expected.
In a war, Antonio Vargas (18-1, 10 KOs) wore down and stopped Jonathan Rodriguez (17-2-1, 7 KOs) by an eighth-round TKO in a WBA bantamweight title eliminator.
Vargas dropped Rodriguez in the final seconds of the eighth round with a left hand to the head. In between rounds, Rodriguez’s corner chose not to let him come out for the ninth round.
In the first, Rodriguez knocked Vargas down with a clean right to the head. In the second, Vargas returned the favor and dropped Rodriguez. However, Vargas was penalized two points for hitting Rodriguez while he was down.
The victory makes Antonio Vargas the mandatory challenger to WBA bantamweight champion Takuma Inoue.
Unbeaten flyweight prospect Yankiel Rivera (5-0, 2 KOs) slugged his way to a wide ten-round unanimous decision over Andy Dominguez (10-1, 5 KOs) in a fight that was more entertaining than the wide scores turned in.
Rivera controlled the action through the first eight rounds but was stunned badly in the ninth round after getting nailed hard by Dominquez. The scores were 99-91, 99-91 and 99-91.