By Francisco Salazar

Junior middleweight contender Nathaniel Gallimore knocked out veteran Esau Herrera of Mexico City Friday night in the opening round of a stay-busy fight at the WinneVegas Casino and Resort in Sloan, Iowa.

Gallimore (20-1-1, 17 knockouts) dropped Herrera with an overhand right to the head. Referee Adam Pollack counted Herrera (18-11-1, 8 KOs) out at 50 seconds of the first round.

Gallimore has now won his last seven bouts, all by knockout. In his previous bout on July 30, Gallimore dominated Justin DeLoach en route to a fifth round knockout victory.

Originally from Jamaica and now residing in the Chicago area, Gallimore is ranked number four by the WBA and number six by the IBF.

Unbeaten bantamweight Joshua Greer, Jr. (15-1-1, 7 KOs) dominated Yakub Kareem (14-8-1, 8 KOs) for four rounds until Kareem did not answer the bell for round five.

Greer, who is also lives in the Chicago area, has now won his last 12 bouts. He is best known for scoring a highlight-reel one-punch knockout victory over James Smith on Mar. 10.

Lightweight prospect Hector Lopez, Jr. (8-0, 5 KOs) knocked out Israel Rojas (13-20, 5 KOs) at 1:05 of the third round.

Gallimore, Greer, and Lopez are managed by Andrew Zak.

IN OTHER NEWS: Yusuf “ZaZa” Kanguel squares off with Bosko Misic for the vacant World Boxing Federation (WBF) Intercontinental Super Middleweight title, topping a bill at the Baslar Eventlocation in Krefeld, Germany on Sunday, November 26.

Former German national Champion Kanguel, 13-2-1 (7), is four years into his professional career, and has won six straight since getting the short end of a split decision against Tiran Metz (12-1-4) in December of 2015.

Last December he impressively stopped Georgian Tornike Gikashvili (14-2-1) in the third round of a twelve-rounder, and he has since scored two more inside-the-distance victories this year to line up his opportunity to become a WBF Champion.

Francisco A. Salazar has written for Boxingscene.com since September of 2012 and has covered boxing in Southern California and abroad since 2000. Francisco also covers boxing for the Ventura County (Calif.) Star newspaper, RingTV.com, and FightNights.com. He can be reached by email at santio89@yahoo.com or on Twitter at FSalazarBoxing