Los Angeles, August 17th, 2019- Emannuel Navarrette 28-1 24KO’s can punch. In a statement making victory the Mexican pounded a game Panchito De Vaca into his first loss via second round stoppage. A hard right uppercut sent De Vaca down in the opening of the second round. De Vaca came roaring back with punches in combination but didn’t have the power to keep the hard punching Navarrette off of him.
After a flurry of hard punches from Navarrette on a dazed De Vaca referee Raul Caiz had seen enough and called a halt to the action. De Vaca loses his undefeated record against a rising Navarrette that has put the division on notice.
Navarrette said he would like to fight in Las Vegas on the Tyson Fury undercard on September 14th during his post-fight interview through a translator. Bob Arum said “He’s Mexican, hes proud to be Mexican, hes the best Mexican fighter, September 14th is a Mexican holiday and the best Mexican fighter will be there to defend his title.”
Jessie Magdaleno 27-1 18KOs moved up to 126 pounds and faced tough Mexican Rafael Rivera 27-4-2 18KOs. Rivera had been in respectable losing bouts against Leo Santa Cruz, and Joseph Diaz Jr. and was to be the measuring stick for Magdaleno moving to featherweight after a crushing KO loss to Isaac Dogboe last year.
Magdaleno was the busier of the two-landing hard crisp shots and buckling Rivera in the second and third rounds. Rivera would swing the momentum in the fourth landing hard right hands on Magdaleno to put him on the run. Magdaleno would right the ship and drop Rivera in the sixth round, beating the count Rivera continued to purse Magdaleno but couldn’t land anything of note until the end of the 9th round when an accidental elbow opened a cut on Magdaleno.
Referee Thomas Taylor took Magdaleno to the corner and the ringside physician determined he could not continue. On scores of 88-82 and 89-81 (twice) Magdaleno picked up a respectable win at 126 pounds to throw his name in the mix of a crowded division that is split through the politics of the sport.
“Rivera’s a tough guy, we knew he was going to come forward, so we put our boxing shoes on and went to work”. Magdaleno said after the fight. Asked about potential next opponents Magdaleno said “Any of them we want a title, I’ll fight them all”.
Despite painting himself green for a charismatic weigh-in Ricky Sismundo 27-4-3 11KOs never changed into the hulking figure he would need to become against Arnold Barboza Jr. 21-0 9KOs. Barboza was a level above Sismundo in skill, firing clean straight combinations that couldn’t miss.
A cone-two combination at the end of the third round put Sismundo on his back to close the stanza. Barboza came out to close the show in the fourth sitting on his punches and firing in combination. After battering Sismundo with little in return referee Ray Corona determined in the corner that Sismundo had seen enough and waived the fight before the start of the fifth. Barboza stays busy and picks up another KO victory following his career best win over Mike Alvarado earlier this year.
Janibek Alimkhanuly 7-0 3KOs didn’t need long to make the case he was in a different class than opponent Stuart McLellan 27-3-3 11KOs. Dubbed “Qazak Style”, Alimkhanuly took McLellan to the woodshed battering him without ever being in danger. In the fifth round Alimkhanuly put Mcllelan down for a second time, Mcllelan would make it to his feet but after a barrage of punches the referee would waive the fight just as the corner threw in the towel to save their man at 2:51 of the round.
Dominican prospect Elvis Rodriguez 3-0-1 3KOs needed less than a round to handle business with Jesus Gonzalez 6-3 2KOs. The Freddie Roach trained fighter dropped Gonzalez early and never looked back putting him down for a second time just seconds later. Despite making it to his feet the referee wiaved the fight at 1:42 of the first round to save Gonzalez from taking unnecessary punishment.
