62 stories on BoxingScene are published under the Giancarlo Oquendo byline.
Every story follows our editorial policy. To report a mistake, use our corrections form; for anything else, contact us.
Former WBO super bantamweight champion Wilfredo " Papito " Vazquez Jr. announced through his social network account that he is now a part of the Miguel Cotto Promotions family. Vazquez ( 23-3-1-19 KO's) was recently released by his previous promoter, All Star Boxing, which led him to a world title.
Puerto Rican prospect Jose "Sniper" Pedraza (15-0, 10KO's) easily dispatched experienced Mexican boxer Alejandro "Soma" Rodriguez (19-13, 11KO's) by technical knockout in the third round. During the third round action, Pedraza connected to Rodriguez's body with a great left hook that sent him to the canvas and he could not recover by the count of ten. With this victory Pedraza retained his USBA super featherweight and WBC youth super featherweight titles. This bout was the featured attraction of a card that was held at the Coliseum Jesus Freire in Cidra, Puerto Rico.
Super welterweight boxer Luis "The Rock" Hernandez (10-1-6 KO's), who is coming off a unanimous decision loss against Golden Boy Promotions prospect Eddie "Boy" Gomez (14-0-9 KO's), has sent a challenge to fellow Puerto Rican John Karl Sosa (7-0, 6 KO's) - and says that he's willing to go down to 150 to face him.
Puerto Rican boxer Gamalier "Gammy" Rodriguez (21-2-3-15 KO's) announced on his Facebook account that he signed with prestigious promotional company Top Rank. On May 18th, Rodriguez got a victory over Mexican fighter Alicio Castaneda (15-2-6 KO's) by TKO in the third round where was crowned NABO featherweight champion. Rodriguez, undefeated since 2009 and winner of his last 13, has been advoided by a lot of fighters.
A minor war of words took place on Twitter between WBO super welterweight Latin champion Jorge "Destroyer" Melendez (26-2-1, 25KOs) and the reigning IBF super welterweight champion Ishe Smith (25-5, 11KOs). The conflict began when Melendez's team published a photo of Smith, trying to bait a verbal exchange. Then the Puerto Rican's team expressed to Smith: "We are ready, go talk to your daddy Mayweather (referring to Floyd Mayweather Jr., who is the promoter of Smith) and make this fight."
Physical conditioning expert Alex Ariza, who works with Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. and Manny Pacquiao, is unable to train former two division champion Juan Manuel "Juanma" Lopez for his June 15 title fight against unbeaten WBO featherweight king Mikey Garcia, which takes place in Dallas, Texas.
Promoter Eddie Hearn has made it clear that lightweight contender Jose "Chelo" González (22-1, 17KOs) had his chance on Saturday night, and blew it, and doesn't see any reason to grant him a rematch against WBO lightweight champion Ricky Burns (36-2, 11KOs). Gonzalez appeared to have swept the first seven rounds, and the judges had him up 87-84 as the tenth round was about to star, but the Puerto Rican boxer indicated that he injured his left writes and couldn't continue.
Upon his arrival at the airport, as he landed back to Puerto Rico, lightweight contender José "Chelo" Gonzalez discussed Saturday's ninth round TKO loss to WBO lightweight champion Ricky Burns in Glasgow, Scotland. Gonzalez started very strong and controlled much of the fight. Gonzalez was up on the cards 87-84, but he badly injured his left wrist and that prevented him from coming out for the tenth round.
The interim WBO Latino/WBA Fedecaribe super welterweight champion, Jorge "Destroyer" Melendez (26-2-1-25 KO's), will return to the ring on June 7th, the day before the Puerto Rican Day Parade in New York City. The card will be shown on Showtime as part of their ShoBox series. The exact venue and opponent is unknown.
As first revealed by veteran reporter Jose Sanchez, Top Rank's CEO Bob Arum is very interested in staging a September HBO televised doubleheader from Puerto Rico. In the main event, Nonito Donaire (31-1, 20 KOs) would face Juan Manuel Lopez (32-2, 29 KOs), and the co-feature would have WBO super featherweight champion Rocky "Roman" Martinez (27-1-2, 16KOs) defending against Mikey Garcia (31-0, 26KOs).