By Ryan Maquiñana

MGM Grand, Las Vegas - A six round featherweight clash saw Braulio Santos (6-0, 5KOs) go the distance for the first time in his career. He picked up a tough unanimous decision, with all three judges scoring 59-55, over Juan Sandoval (5-9-1, 3KOs)

In a battle of junior welterweights, Omar Figueroa (16-0-1, 13 KOs) of Weslaco, Tex., stopped Robbie Cannon (12-7-2, 6 KOs) of Pevely, Mo., in the second round.   Figueroa, 139, immediately went to work in the first stanza, getting Cannon, 138, on the ropes.  Figueroa would then floor him with a body shot and a subsequent punch that grazed him but sent him on his way down.  Cannon would get up, but he was merely holding off the inevitable.  In the second frame, Figueroa would finish Cannon off; alternating between southpaw and orthodox, Figueroa would land a left hook with his head turned away from his opponent, resulting in another knockdown.  Cannon rose to his feet on shaky ground, and Vic Drakulich called it off at 2:08.

Keith Thurman (17-0, 16 KOs) stopped Brandon Hoskins (16-1-1, 8 KOs) at 0:25 of the third round.   In the second frame, a steady diet of lead left hooks from Thurman, 149, took their toll on Hoskins, 149.   Eventually one of them wobbled Hoskins and caused him to take a knee.   Hoskins, a native of Hannibal, Mo., would get up, but the end would come soon.  Thurman, from Clearwater, Fla., applied even more heat in the third, hurting Hoskins with a left hook and right hand over the top that prompted referee Russell Mora to stop him on his feet.

The Mayweather-Cotto undercard at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas began with welterweight prospect Antonio Orozco (14-0, 10 KOs) scoring a third-round technical knockout of Dillet Frederick (8-6-3, 5 KOs).

The San Diego-based Orozco, 142, wasted little time in asserting himself on the strength of a left hook to the body as Frederick, 140, found himself covering up on the ropes.  By the second round, Orozco shifted his attack upstairs, unleashing a short left uppercut and a looping right to get around the high guard of Frederick, who hailed from Fort Myers, Fla.  The third round was more of the same, with Orozco relentlessly going after the ribcage uncontested; as a result, referee Kenny Bayless called a halt to the bout at 1:45.

Ryan Maquiñana writes a weekly boxing column for CSNBayArea.com.  He is a voting member of the Boxing Writers Association of America and Ring Magazine’s Ratings Panel. E-mail him at rmaquinana@gmail.com , check out his blog at Norcalboxing.net, or follow him on Twitter: @RMaq28.

Tags: Floyd Mayweather Jr. , Miguel Cotto , Omar Figueroa , Mayweather-Cotto , Mayweather vs Cotto