By Francisco Salazar
(CHINO, Calif) - He is unbeaten, hits hard, and is from Kazakhstan.
While Gennady Golovkin comes to mind, Bekman Soylybaev is a fighter who shares these same attributes.
He demonstrated his strength Friday night, knocking out Sergio Najera in the first round at an outdoor pavilion at the city's Fairgrounds.
After a stellar amateur background, Soylybaev made his professional debut one day short of a year ago.
He made his United States debut on February 20 in the Los Angeles suburb of Studio City, knocking out Jose Gomez in the third round.
Soylybaev went right at Najera, who had lost two bouts in a row after winning back-to-back bouts. Soylybaev landed a left hook to the top of Najera's head, dropping him to a knee. He remained on one knee as referee Sharon Sands counted him out at 36 seconds.
Soylybaev improves to 5-0, 3 KOs, while Najera falls to 10-20-2, 4 KOs.
Junior featherweight Azat Hovhannisyan stopped Daniel Quevedo in the third round. After an even first round, Hovahannisyan (7-2, 6 KOs) dropped Quevedo with a right to the top of the head midway through the second round. Quevedo (13-16-4, 8 KOs) tried to rally in round three, but was hurt again by a right hand by Hovahannisyan. The impact of the punch sent him back against a corner, prompting referee Sharon Sands to begin administering an eight count, but she stopped the fight at 36 seconds due to Quevedo being too hurt to continue.
Lightweight John Delpersang was successful in his professional debut, stopping Francisco Solis in the second round. Delpersang dropped Solis (0-7) twice in the second round before Solis' corner threw in the towel, prompting referee Raul Caiz, Jr. to wave the fight over at 1:13.
Lightweight James Stewart improves to 1-2 with a four round majority decision over Minju Shin (1-2). One judge scored the bout even at 38-38, while the other two judges scored the bout 39-37 in favor of Stewart.
In the opening bout of the PR Promotions card, junior welterweight Jonathan Aceves (1-1) won a four round split decision over Poul Huguez, who was making his pro debut. One judge scored the bout 39-37 in favor of Huguez, but the other two judges scored the bout 39-37 and 40-36 in favor of Aceves.
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 (CA) Star newspaper, RingTV, and Knockout Nation. He can be reached by email at santio89@yahoo.com or on Twitter at FSalazarBoxing
