By Allen Fox: Making his first defense of his World Boxing Organization (WBO) super bantamweight title Jorge Arce (58-6-2, 45 KO’s) stopped former IBF super flyweight champion Simphiwe Nongqayi (16-2-1, 6 KO’s) in the 4th round on Saturday night at the Foro Promo Casa, Mexicali, Baja California, Mexico.

Arce hurt Nongqayi with a powerful right hand in the 4th, causing Nongqayi to back up to the ropes where Arce flurried on him until Nongqayi sagged forward while standing and was defenseless. The referee Rafael Ramos then halted the fight at 2:01 of the 4th round to save Nongqayi from sustaining any additional punishment from Arce.

Nongqayi was knocked down late in the 1st round from a right-left combination from Arce. Nongqayi had his back against the ropes and was unable to retreat away from the powerful combination thrown by Arce.

Arce, 32, had been beaten by Nongqayi in a 12 round unanimous decision loss two years ago in September 2009. Arce promised himself that he would avenge that defeat and that’s exactly what he did, as he viciously attacked the South African Nongqayi from the first round, rushing out to the center of the ring and opening up with nonstop punches to the head and body. A lot of Arce’s shots missed or were blocked by the taller Nongqayi. However, late in the round Arce knocked Nongqayi down with a 1-2 combination to the head while Nongqayi was leaning against the ropes trying to fight back.

The 2nd had very little action to speak of. You could say that Arce may have done enough to win the round but it was really close because he missed a lot of shots and was getting many of his punches blocked on the arms and gloves of Nongqayi.

In the 3rd round, Arce was cut over the right eye from a headbutt from Nongqayi. However, Arce attacked hard throwing flurries and landing well. The pace that Arce was setting was blistering and Nongqayi didn’t seem interested in trying to match Arce’s pace. The thing is by not trying to keep up with Arce, Nongqayi found himself getting hit an awful lot. He may have been gambling that Arce would run out of gas, but with the amount of shots that he was eating it was going to be a race against time because something would give sooner or later with the amount of shots that Arce was landing.

Arce was cut again, this time on the forehead in the 4th round from another headbutt from Nongqayi. A timeout was called while the ringside doctor examined the cut. The time off seemed to energize Arce, because as soon as the fight was allowed to resume, Arce attacked Nongqayi like a mad man, throwing punch after punch and refusing to stop. Nongqayi got clipped by a hard right hand from Arce that sent Nongqayi backwards to the corner. He tried to have a last stand in that position but Arce opened up with a storm of punches that put Nongqayi out on his feet to where he was leaning forward and no longer fighting back. The referee then stopped the fight before Arce could put Nongqayi.

In other action on the card:

Victor Terrazas TKO 4 Eduardo Becerril
Richie Mepranum UD 6 Valentin Leon