By Joe Harrison

On Friday, heavyweight Fres Oquendo (30-5, 19 KOs) defeated Mark Brown (15-2, 7 KOs) by a 3rd-round TKO at the UIC Pavilion in Chicago. With the victory, Oquendo earned the vacant WBC Latino title in a scheduled ten-round bout. The event, Windy City Fight Night 3, was promoted by Dominic Pesoli’s 8 Count Productions.

At the start of the 1st round, Oquendo created distance by using his jab. On numerous occasions, Brown threw a single wild punch before clinching with Oquendo and trying to force him over the top rope. These actions persisted throughout the round as Brown never landed his wild hook, but instead received warnings from Referee Geno Rodriguez for his constant holding.

In the second round, the same pattern continued as Brown would miss a wild left hook, and clinch with Oquendo while pushing him against the rope, trying to force him over it. Rodriguez eventually took a moment to deduct a point from Brown for his incessant holding. From that point forward, Oquendo was able to gain control and backed Brown into a corner while throwing combinations at his face.

Oquendo was able to finish the job in the third round as he avoided Brown’s attempts to clinch and began to land more straight lefts and rights. All Brown could do was cover up as Oquendo continued to pound away at Brown against the ropes. Rodriguez stepped in to stop the bout at the 2:38 mark.

Afterward, Brown stepped out of the ring and yelled repeatedly, “I took this on three days notice! He’s nothing!”

Earlier in the week, Brown stepped in for Oquendo’s original opponent, Omar Basile. It was announced that Oquendo and Basile would square off in the main event of Windy City Fight Night 4 at the UIC Pavilion on Friday, July 24th.

Before Oquendo’s victory over Mark Brown, junior welterweight Ivan Popoca (11-0-1, 7 KOs) remained undefeated with a unanimous decision win over Hector Alatorre (15-8, 5 KOs) in an eight-round bout. It was an entertaining scrap with both men connecting hard punches, most of them from Popoca by a wide margin.

Throughout every round, Popoca kept the pressure on Alatorre, throwing jabs, hooks and uppercuts. However, the more punches he threw, the more punches he took from Alatorre. Still, Popoca was always in control as he punished Alatorre round after round. Alatorre’s determination was also impressive considering that he never went down and continued to fight back even into the final round. At the end, the judges scores were 80-72, 78-74, and 78-74, all for Popoca.

Also on the fight card, super middleweight Andrzej Fonfara (13-2, 4 KOs) scored a 2nd-round TKO over Skyler Thompson (11-4, 9 KOs) to claim the WBF International title. From the opening bell, Fonfara was landing lefts and rights, rocking Thompson around the ring. Fonfara remained in control as he dominated his opponent.

In the second round, the southpaw continued to take punishment from his Polish opponent. Eventually, Thompson took a knee and chose not to continue. The contest was over at the 2:59 mark.