Super middleweight contender Edgar Berlanga (22-0, 17 KOs) destroyed previously unbeaten Irish fighter Padraig McCrory (18-1, 9 KOs) by a sixth round knockout on Saturday night at the Caribe Royale in Orlando, Florida. The time of the stoppage was at 2:44 of round six.
Berlanga landed two right hands to the head of the little-known 35-year-old McCrory to drop him in the sixth round. McCrory’s corner then threw in the towel to have the fight stopped. It didn’t matter because he didn’t look like he was going to make it back to his feet.
McCrory was staggered with a hard right hand from Berlanga in the third round. In that round, Berlanga was warned for elbowing McCrory to the head.
Berlanga controlled the fight in rounds four and five with his power shots against tall, skinny McCrory, who didn’t look like he belonged there.
“He’s a veteran. I didn’t want to go the stoppage until I knew he was hurt,” said Berlanga about McCrory, who only has 18 fights under his belt, not a veteran in the true sense. “I want Canelo next. Eddie [Hearn] right there, he’s going to make it happen.”
In the chief support bout, 2020 Olympic Cuban gold medalist Andy Cruz (3-0, 1 KOs) defeated Brayan Zamarripa (14-3, 5 KOs) by a 10-round unanimous decision in lightweight action. The scores were 100-90, 100-90, and 100-90.
Cruz fought well, landing potshots the entire night, bloodying Zamarripa’s nose. The only thing that Cruz needs to improve on in the future is throwing more combinations. Although Cruz’s trainer Derek ‘Bozy’ Ennis was asking him to throw combinations to score a knockout, he wouldn’t follow his instructions.
If Cruz had fought more like Bozy’s son, Jaron ‘Boots’ Ennis, who is a combination puncher, he would have stopped Zamarripa early. There was nothing wrong with Cruz’s power. It his problem tonight was he was throwing just single shots, and being too defensive, still using the amateur style that he had fighting in Cuba.
If Cruz wants to become a star, he will need to abandon that style and put his shots together like his trainer Bozy was asking him to do.
When Bozy was giving Cruz instructions between rounds, he didn’t make eye contact and seemed like he wasn’t listening to him. He certainly didn’t follow instructions, which has to be frustrating for Bozy because his son, Boots, follows commands to the letter in his fights.
Welterweight contender Shakhram Giyasov (15-0, 9 KOs) defeated veteran Pablo Cesar Cano (35-9-1, 25 KOs) by an 11 round technical decision win in a WBA 147-lb eliminator. Cano suffered an injured right ankle in the 11th round when he slipped and fell while throwing punches in a clinch.
Unfortunately, the 34-year-old Cano’s injury wouldn’t allow him to come out for the 12th. The scores were 109-99, 109-99 and 109-99. Giyasov dropped Cano with a left to the body in round three. In a veteran move, Cano spit out his mouthpiece, giving him extra time to recover. With the win, Giyasov will now be fighting WBA welterweight champion Eimantas Stanionis.
In a thrilling fight, Antonio Vargas (18-1, 10 KOs) stopped a brave warrior, Jonathan Rodriguez (17-2-1, 7 KOs), by an eighth-round technical knockout in a WBA bantamweight title eliminator.
Rodriguez dropped Vargas with a hard right hand in the first round, catching him clean with a big shot. Vargas came back strong to knock Rodriguez down in round two. However, Vargas hit Rodriguez while he was down on the canvas, resulting in being docked two points by the referee.
In the final seconds of the eighth round, Vargas dropped Rodriguez with a left hook to the head that badly hurt him. In between rounds, Rodriguez’s trainer decided to halt the contest, which was wise.
Rodriguez looked hurt and wouldn’t make it through the ninth round without getting stopped. With the win, Vargas is now the WBA mandatory for bantamweight champion Takuma Inoue.
2020 Olympian Yankiel Rivera (5-0, 2 KOs) defeated Andy Dominguez (10-1, 5 KOs) with an exciting ten-round unanimous decision in flyweight action. Rivera dominated the fight through the first eight rounds, but was staggered badly in the ninth.
In the tenth, Rivera came back strong to control the round and win by the scores 99-91, 99-91 and 99-91. With the win, Rivera captured the WBA and WBC Continental Americas titles.