By Mark Eisner: Welterweight contender Alexis Rocha (19-1, 13 KOs) wore down previously unbeaten Blair ‘The Flair’ Cobbs (15-1-1, 10, 10 KOs) in scoring a ninth-round knockout in the main event on Saturday night at the USC Galen Center in Los Angeles, California.
Rocha dropped Cobbs in the eighth round with a big right hand. In the ninth round, Rocha nailed Cobbs repeatedly with his right hands during a clinch that hurt him, causing him to fall into the ropes.
Rocha then unloaded with a flurry of shots that resulted in the referee stepping in to halt the fight.
Cobbs, 32, didn’t know where he was at the time of the stoppage and hit the referee a couple of times to the body. The time of the stoppage was at 0:44 of round nine.
Undercard results:
- Welterweight contender Michael McKinson (22-0, 2 KOs) had a tougher time than expected in defeating the defensive-minded Alex Martin (17-4, 6 KOs) by a 10 round unanimous decision. The scores were 97-93, 98-92, and 99-91. Boxing News 24 scored it 97-93. McKinson struggled early throwing jabs and single shots, resulting in Martin countering him with short lefts. In the championship rounds, McKinson became more aggressive, coming forward throwing combinations, and he had a lot more success. The crowd booed the lack of action in the last three rounds, letting both fighters know that they weren’t pleased with their defensive styles. In fairness to McKinson, he had trained to fight the much more aggressive Vergil Ortiz Jr. In the week of the fight, Vergil pulled out because of a medical issue. So instead of fighting the big punching Ortiz, McKinson was matched against the defensive-minded Martin, and it was a style that the British weren’t ready for. All in all, McKinson still looked excellent in adapting in the championship round. It would have been interesting if Golden Boy had matched McKinson against Blair Cobbs or Alexis Rocha in the main event.
- Light heavyweight prospect Bektemir “Bek The Bully” Melikuziev (9-1, 7 KOs) showed off his power tonight with a beautiful second-round knockout win over the normally durable David Zegarra (34-8, 21 KOs). Bektemir landed a powerful body shot in the second round that put Zegarra down. He was too hurt to get back up, resulting in the fight being halted at :30 of the second round. The victory for “Bek The Bully’ was his second straight since his surprising third-round knockout defeat at the hands of Gabe Rosado last year.
- Welterweight Evan Sanchez (11-0, 6 KOs) dominated Alejandro Munera (6-5-4, 5 KOs) in winning a six-round unanimous decision. Sanchez knocked Munera down in the fourth round. The scores were 60-53, 60-53, and 60-53.
- Junior middleweight Alex Rincon (10-0, 7 KOs) defeated Luis Sanchez (9-3, 6 KOs) by a second-round knockout. In round two, the 26-year-old southpaw Rincon dropped Sanchez twice. Referee Rudy Barragan stopped the fight at 1:44 of the second round
- Unbeaten bantamweight prospect John Ramirez (9-0, 7 KOs) dominated journeyman Roberto Pucheta (10-21-3, 6 KOs), winning a lopsided six-round unanimous decision. The scores were 60-54, 60-54, and 60-54.
- Undefeated light-welterweight Alejandro Reyes (7-0, 4 KOs) defeated the 31-year-old veteran Daniel Evangelista Jr. (20-13-2, 16 KOs) by a six-round unanimous decision. The scores were 50-51, 60-51, 60-51 Evangelista was penalized a point in round two for throwing a rabbit punch to the back of the 22-year-old Reyes’ head. In the fourth, the referee took another point off from Evangelista for twisting Reyes’ arm.
- Female super bantamweight prospect Ramla Ali (5-0, 1 KOs) kept her perfect record intact with a second-round stoppage victory over Shelly Barnett (5-7-2).
- Lightweight prospect Dalis Kaleiopu (2-0, 2 KOs) defeated Manuel Lara (2-8) by a fourth-round knockout. Kaleiopu dropped the overmatched Lara twice in the first round and a final time in the fourth. The time of the stoppage was at 2:15 of round four.
- Lightweight Miguel Gaona (2-0, 2 KOs0 destroyed Gilberto Aguilar (0-5) by a first-round knockout. The 23-year-old Gaona knocked Aguilar down with a body shot in the first round. The fight was then halted at 0:30 of the round by referee Ivan Guillermo.
Preview
Without any great options to take the headliner spot, the Rocha vs. Cobbs fight was moved to that position. The fight will be taking place at USC Galen Center in Los Angles, California.
A fight that could steal the show from the main event is the chief support bout between the talented welterweight contender Michael McKinson (21-0, 2 KOs) and Alex Martin (17-3, 6 KOs).
The undefeated #4 WBO McKinson had been scheduled to battle Vergil Ortiz Jr. in the main event, but after his illness, it left the Brit without an opponent.
Rather than Golden Boy Promotions matching McKinson with Cobbs or Rocha, they’ve moved him down to the chief support bout against second-tier fighter Alex Martin.
Obviously, Golden Boy already had the Rocha-Cobbs fight under contract, so they couldn’t shift one of them to the undercard, but it would have been a nice move.
McKinson arguably is more talented than Cobbs and Rocha and has more of a future than either of these two fighters. Cobbs is a great talker, but short on talent and old already at 32.
The main reason the Rocha-Cobbs fight has gotten the attention of the boxing world is the hyperbolic comments that Cobbs has made during the build-up to his fight.
Cobbs has name-dropped, taking shots at Errol Spence Jr and Vergil Ortiz, while boasting about his talent. When you look closely at Cobbs’ resume, it’s readily apparent that he’s beaten no one of note, and has been matched exclusively against second-tier opposition.
Cobbs surprisingly took a shot at Jaron ‘Boots’ Ennis lately, saying he’d like to fight him.
“People like that who have been baby-sitted and never been tested, there are levels to this game,” said Cobbs to True School Sports about Boots Ennis.
What’s even more troubling is Cobbs getting knocked down and badly hurt Carlos Ortiz Cervantes (12-5) in their recent fight.
Watching Cobbs struggle against a sub-level fighter like Cervantes showed that he’s nowhere near good enough to compete with world-class position, even against the bottom fringe-level contenders like Daniyar Yeleussinov and Josesito Lopez.
Cobbs tends to move around a lot, throwing a weak jab, and then suddenly, he’ll spring an attack on his opponents, throwing nonstop shots.
When Cobbs in this form, he gets hit a lot and is vulnerable to getting countered. That’s how Cobbs was hurt by the ham-and-egger fighter Cervantes.
Cobbs recklessly attacked Cervantes and was counted by a big right hand, and put down on the canvas.
“He’s athletic and explosive,” said Shawn Porter on the Porter Way Podcast about Blair Cobbs. “He’s the kind of guy that will throw a punch at you that you don’t expect and watch out. So he is that kind of guy.”
The light heavyweight prospect Bektemir ‘Bek The Bully’ Melikuziev (8-1, 6 KOs) will be taking on David Zegarra (34-7, 21 KOs) in a 10 round fight. This will be Bektemir’s second fight since losing to Gabe Rosado last June by a third-round knockout.
Tonight in the main event, welterweight contender Alexis Rocha will take on the brash self-promoter Blair Cobbs in a 10 round bout on DAZN. The fight card begins at 9:00 p.m. ET.6:00 p.m. PT.
Rocha-Cobbs has been slotted for the co-feature spot on the Vergil Ortiz Jr-Michael McKinson card, but the unbeaten 23-year-old Ortiz Jr. has to pull due to a medical problem.