By Manuel Perez: Lightweight Efren Hinojosa (29-5-1, 17 KOs) was hurt at the end of the 1st round on Friday night when he was hit in the back of the head by a right hand from his Puerto Rican opponent Jose Reyes (23-5, 8 KOs) at the Miccosukee Resort & Gaming, in Miami, Florida. Hinojosa, 37, immediately collapsed onto the canvas and the fight was stopped a short time later as he was unable to continue fighting. The fight was then ruled a no contest.
Up until the rabbit punch was landed by Reyes, the two fighters had fought a pretty much close 1st round with Reyes looking to have gotten a little better of Hinojosa with his hard right hands. However, near the end of the round both fighters came together in a clinch. While Hinojosa was spinning out of the clinch, his back got partially turned around and was facing Reyes, who took the opportunity to land a right hand to the back of Hinojosa’s head.
Upon getting hit, Hinojosa clutched the back of his head, grimacing in pain and falling down on the canvas back first. He then laid there for what seemed like eternity as the crowd booed loudly, perhaps wanting to see him get up and continue fighting instead of laying there. He continued holding his head and looking as if he was in great pain for several minutes.
During that time, the ringside doctor came in and examined him, having him sit up on a chair. Shortly after that, a stretcher was brought into the ring, and Hinojosa was strapped up and carried out of the ring.
The actual rabbit punch that Reyes landed seemed hardly a particularly brutal shot in comparison to some big shots I’ve seen from some other fighters. However, the placement of the punch was at the bottom of Hinojosa’s skull, near his neck and it could be that it was something that might have caused an instant concussion because of the vulnerable area where it landed.
In other action on the card, light welterweight prospect Stalin Lopez (2-0, 1 KOs) stopped Karl Garcia in the 4th round. Lopez, 31, hurt Garcia with a hard right hand in the 4th. He then followed up with a hard jab that knocked Garcia across the ring into the ropes. Lopez then cornered him and unloaded with a barrage of punches ending with a hard right hand that snapped back Garcia’s head violently. Referee Frank Santore Jr. then stepped in and stopped the fight. Lopez dominated the other three rounds, controlling the action with left-right combinations and getting hit very seldom by the badly overmatched Garcia.
Lightweight Daniel Alvarez (1-0) defeated Pablo Barbosa (0-1) by a 4-round split decision. The final scores were 39-37, 39-37 and 37-39. However, it appeared that Barbosa had won every round of the fight from what I saw of the action. Alvarez, 5’6”, rarely landed any significant blows in the fight, mostly missing or clinching. Barbosa, 5’10”, used his big height advantage to jab the shorter Alvarez from the outside and pick him off with combinations to the head and body. Though Alvarez was very aggressive and attacked hard in each round, he wasn’t very effective with his attacks and spent much of the time missing or clinching. After the decision was announced, a shocked and perhaps angry Barbosa immediately left the ring without congratulating Alvarez.
Featherweight prospect Genier Pit (2-1-1, 2 KOs) stopped Joshua Arocho in the 3rd round. Pit, 27, caught Arocho in the corner and pummeled him there briefly until the referee stepped in and stopped the fight. Pit dominated the two previous rounds, cutting Arocho over the left eye in the 2nd round and dominating him with power shots until the stoppage in the 3rd.