By Jake Donovan
Teenage prospect Eddie “Eboy” Gomez scored his seventh win in as many pro fights, stopping Antonio Infante in the fifth round of their Telefutura-televised main event Friday evening at Complejo Deportivo Nilmarie Santini in San Juan, Puerto Rico.
The official time was 2:17 of the fifth round.
Gomez fought well beyond his young age of just 19 years young, easily handing a fighter 14 years his senior in Infante. The bout was never competitive, with Gomez dominating and at times making it look easy in front of his rabid countrymen.
The end came in the fifth round when Gomez unloaded with power shots that left Infante defenseless. A straight right hand snapped back the head of the Florida-based welterweight, but Gomez stood back and admired his work long enough to where he threatened to let his opponent off the hook.
He would show moments later that he was merely measuring up, as a blistering right uppercut forced the referee to intervene towards the end of the round.
Gomez, who turned pro just over a year ago, improves to 7-0 (6KO). Born in the Bronx but now based out of Puerto Rico, the 19-year old has now scored three straight stoppages.
Infante has now lost two straight as he heads back to Florida with a mark of 6-2 (4KO).
A major upset occurred in undercard action as O’Neil Negron suffered a majority decision loss at the hands of upside down journeyman Roberto Acevedo
Scores were 59-55 and 58-56 for Acevedo (11-12-3, 1KO) and 57-57 even.
Negron (8-1-1, 8KO) was simply outhustled and outfought over the course of their six-round co-feature. Known as a patient knockout artist, Negron was relaxed to a fault, not throwing enough punches in waiting for a knockout that never presented itself.
Acevedo has now scored two straight wins after having eight consecutive losses dating back to May ’09. The win is perhaps the biggest of his journeyman career, though it marks the third time he has scored an upset over a previously unbeaten fighter.
For Negron, the search continues for a way to win a fight other than by knockout. All eight of his wins have come inside the distance, having now suffered a loss and a draw the lone two times his fights have went to the scorecards.
Keith Tapia enjoyed a successful pro debut with a first round knockout of fellow newcomer Kulian Santiago.
The official time was 1:50 of the first round.
Tapia (1-0, 1KO) was relentless in his attack. The beginning of the end came with a right uppercut that jerked back the head of Santiago (0-1, 0KO), who was simply unable to defend himself from that point onward. A volley of head shots followed, including a perfectly placed left hook to the temple that put down Santiago face first, in fact skidding across the canvas as if he hit a rapid wave while surfing.
Santiago beat the count, but was better served to remain on the deck. Tapia went ballistic, unloading on his defenseless foe before the white towel came flying in from Santiago, prompting the referee to jump in between the cruiserweights to stop the fight.
Jake Donovan is the Managing Editor of Boxingscene.com. Follow Jake on Twitter at twitter.com/JakeNDaBox or submit questions/comments to JakeNDaBox@gmail.com.