LAKELAND, Fla. -- Dominic Valle took the next step in a blossoming career when he outlasted and outclassed veteran Rene Alvarado for an eight-round unanimous decision in their junior lightweight matchup Friday at the RP Funding Center in Lakeland, Florida.
Valle, a 25-year-old local attraction from Lutz, Florida, is on the verge of taking his talents to a wider audience after emptying out his bag against his most experienced and (easily most rugged) opponent yet in Alvarado. A 36-year-old from Managua, Nicaragua, Alvarado entered with 52 career fights, including starts when he went the distance with Lamont Roach Jnr, William Zepeda and Yuriorkis Gamboa and once earned a decision over Jayson Velez.
Valle, 12-0 (7 KOs), began by working his jab in the early rounds, and although he was pulled into some exchanges with Alvarado, he used his feet, head movement and quick hands to win nearly all of them.
Valle was beginning to break through Alvarado’s defenses by the third round, alternately fighting off the back foot and aggressively attacking when he was able to put Alvarado’s back on the ropes. In the fourth, Alvarado was bleeding from a cut outside his right eye – likely a result of an accumulation of Valle left hooks.
At the end of a slow sixth, Valle punctuated it with short left hooks when Alvarado stormed in looking for his own offense. In the seventh, Alvarado threw right-left upstairs, glancing off gloves, and targeted his opponent’s flanks, firing shots around Valle’s elbows. But Valle strongarmed Alvarado against the ropes, popping his man with tight, varied scoring shots.
Alvarado never gave Valle a chance to coast, but by the eighth, he was more or less spent, a bit bloody and at a loss for answers.
Valle told BoxingScene after the fight that he hopes to land a world title shot by the end of 2026. Alvarado, meanwhile, fell to 36-17 (22 KOs).
Earlier, Emilio Garcia never broke a sweat in a first-round stoppage of Roberto Kevin Escobar Tapia in their scheduled six-round welterweight fight.
The action, for as long as it lasted, was fierce – and all from Garcia. He landed a heat-seeking right uppercut almost out of the gate that dropped Tapia hard where he stood. Tapia was up again, a bit shakily, and was allowed to continue.
Garcia, a 22-year-old from Laredo, Texas, wasted no time, going after Tapia. Within moments, Garcia clobbered him with a sweeping overhand right that landed flush to the crown of Tapia’s head, putting him down again. This time, when Tapia barely beat the count, referee Michael de Jesus was prepared to let it go before Tapia staggered to a neutral corner. De Jesus called it then.
Garcia advanced to 3-0 (3 KOs), while Tapia – from Mexicali in Baja California, Mexico – slipped to 6-5-1 (4 KOs).
Xavier Bocanegra, a good-looking junior lightweight prospect, stayed undefeated with a first-round stoppage of Sergio Aldana in their scheduled six-round bout.
Bocanegra, a 21-year-old from Donna, Texas, dropped Aldana into the ropes with a left hook for an initial knockdown in Round 1. When the action resumed, Bocanegra stalked him, launched a handful of shots, then caught Aldana with a three-punch flurry that sent him toppling over and out of the fight.
Bocanegra, 9-0 (7 KOs), bounced back from what he deemed a less-than-satisfactory performance in his third-round knockout win over Jonatan Lecona Ramos in June.
Aldana took his first career loss to drop to 4-1 (1 KOs).
Ranulfo Bocanegra helped set the stage for his older brother, Xavier, by overwhelming Julio Lanzas Carrillo with his length and power in a fourth-round knockout win in their featherweight bout.
Bocanegra, a 19-year-old from Donna, Texas, had a little trouble controlling distance but flashed a nice jab and blasted his opponent with left hooks – including one to the body that froze Carrillo in the first.
Bocanegra went to the other side in Round 2, landing hard rights to the body, plus a big overhand shot behind the jab. He mixed up both hands in the third, showing more patience and an improved approach as Carrillo ducked in, closed distance and tried to muck up the fight. In the fourth, the final scheduled round, Bocanegra’s early work paid off when he pinpointed a left hook to the gut that sent Carrillo to his knee for the full 10-count and then some.
Bocanegra improved to 4-0 (2 KO), while Carrillo, a 19-year-old from Colorado Springs, Colorado, fell to 1-2-1.
In the opening bout of the night, local junior welterweight Benjamin Smith earned a second-round stoppage over Tyre Travon Reed.
Smith, a resident of Bartow, Florida, by way of Waycross, Georgia, started 1-0 (1 KO). Reed, originally from Nagadoches, Texas, and now fighting out of Las Vegas is 0-1.
