By Eric Thomas: World Boxing Council/WBO bantamweight champion Fernando Montiel (43-2-2, 33 KO’s) simply overpowered Panamanian Rafael Concepcion (14-5-1, 8 KO’s), knocking him down three times en route to stopping him in the 3rd round on Saturday night at the Palenque de la Feria, Tuxtla Gutierrez, Chiapas, Mexico. The key to the victory for the 31-year-old Montiel was his quick left hook.

Montiel was able to catch Concepcion with short hooks over and over again during the fight, tagging him often while he was on the way in. Concepcion, 28, who went life and death with Nonito Donaire in losing a narrow 12 round decision in August 2009, was no match for the quicker Montiel on Saturday night. Concepcion was knocked down twice in the 2nd round and a third and final time in the 3rd round. Following the last knockdown, the fight was stopped at 1:07 of third round by referee Robert Byrd.

Concepcion came out fast in the opening round, pressuring Montiel and throwing wide looping hooks, most of which were blocked by Montiel. Most of the action was initiated by Concepcion in the round. Montiel, however, came on in the last minute of the round to land some nice left hooks to the head.

In the 2nd round, Montiel immediately changed the flow of the fight, as he landed a quick double left hook to the head that put Concepcion down on the canvas. Concepcion got up, looking hurt, and immediately tried to clinch Montiel. However, Montiel poured uppercuts and hooks, knocking Concepcion to the canvas again with another left hook to the head.

For the remainder of the round, Montiel stalked Concepcion, landing with uppercuts and hooks. Montiel was quite effective in landing short uppercuts while Concepcion would try to clinch. There really was no place for Concepcion to hide, because he was getting pounded on the inside and the outside, and looked badly overmatched.

Near the end of the round, Concepcion was getting raked with shots in the corner. He obviously didn’t like it and grabbed a hold of Montiel and just held him as Montiel wrestled to get loose from him. Referee Robert Byrd then stopped the action and deducted a point from Concepcion for the holding.

However, Byrd hadn’t given Concepcion any previous warnings for holding, as far as I can tell. It seemed a little unfair for Concepcion to lose a point for just one hold, because he really wasn’t doing much of any holding in the fight. Nevertheless, the point deduction had no real effect on the outcome of the fight because Concepcion was in trouble with the hard shots that Montiel was raining in on him.

In the 3rd round, Concepcion landed a nice left hook at the start of the, but that was pretty much it for him in terms of throwing punches for the remainder of the fight. Montiel then continued to pour in hard left hooks to the head, backing Concepcion up to the corner and knocked him down for the third time in the fight with a short right hand to the head. The fight was then stopped by referee Robert Byrd at 1:07 of the round.

It was pretty shocking to see how easily Montiel defeated Concepcion. This was the same fighter who gave Donaire all kinds of problems, yet Montiel made it look easy from start to finish. This isn’t good news for Donaire, who wants to fight Montiel next. He could be barking up a wrong tree by moving up in weight and taking on Montiel.

Other action on the card:

Michael Medina TKO 4 Gilberto Flores Hernandez
Armando Robles TKO 3 Alejandro Mendez