By Francisco Salazar
Junior flyweight contender Felix Alvarado battered Ivan Meneses for three-plus rounds, stopping him in round four Saturday night at the Gimnasio Nicario in his hometown of Managua, Nicaragua.
Alvarado (33-2, 29 knockouts) dominated the action from the opening bell, breaking down Meneses. The fight was finally stopped at 1:10 of the fourth round.
Alvarado, who’s twin brother is junior lightweight contender Rene Alvarado, is the mandatory challenger to face IBF titleholder Ryoichi Taguchi of Japan. Alvarado is also ranked number three by the WBO and number four by the WBC.
The 29-year-old Alvarado has won his last 15 bouts.
Meneses (19-17-1, 11 KOs), who is from Puebla, Mexico, has lost seven of his last eight bouts.
In the main event of the Nica Boxing card, bantamweight Melvin Lopez won a one-sided decision over Yonathan Padilla.
Lopez, who also resides in Managua, dropped Padilla (18-4, 8 KOs) dropped once in round one and again in round two.
All three judges scored the bout 100-88 in favor of Lopez, who improves to 14-0, 9 KOs.
In bantamweight action, former world flyweight title challenger Keyvin Lara (25-2-1, 9 KOs) stopped Moises Mojica (5-4-2, 4 KOs) in the sixth and final round.
Welterweight Ramal Amanov of Azerbaijan won a seventh round technical decision over Elvin Perez (28-22-4, 19 KOs). Scores were 70-62, 69-63, and 68-64 for Amanov, who improves to 13-0, 2 KOs.
Francisco A. Salazar has written for BoxingScene.com since September of 2012 and has covered boxing in Southern California and abroad since 2000. He can be reached by email at santio89@yahoo.com or on Twitter at FSalazarBoxing
