Jaybrio Pe Benito stops Abel Mejia in three rounds in battle of unbeatens

LAS VEGAS – Short and sweet.

Hawaii’s Jaybrio Pe Benito finished Abel Mejia by third-round TKO Sunday at the Zuffa Boxing card at the Apex, delivering a sudden right hand to the jaw that gave the fledgling promotion a thrilling jolt to open the show on Paramount+.

“Respect to him. He ain’t no fluke,” lightweight Pe Benito 7-0 (5KOs) said. “He was my biggest test and I passed with flying colors.”

Mejia, 10-1, dared to eat and stomach head and body blows in order to land the bigger punches on Pe Benito at the start.

Pe Benito wasn’t backing, finding available head shots to exploit before Mejia pounded him with well-placed punches to the face himself. 

But a big left by Pe Benito right on the button then dropped Mejia near the end of the second round.

Pe Benito then delivered the finishing right to the head. Mejia pleaded his case with referee Mark Nelson after rising before the eight count, but Nelson had seen enough and waved it over.

It was a spirited victory for the Freddie Roach-trained fighter.

“I look to get better every single time,” Pe Benito, 27, said. “My team put a lot of work in and I trust my team.”

Earlier in middleweight action, Texas’ Mark Beuke roared back in the second half to gain a 77-75, 75-77, 77-75 split-decision victory over Minnesota’s Antonio Woods.

Woods, 14-2, began landing effective rights to Beuke’s head in the second.

Following corner direction to be first and last during exchanges, Woods leaned into his activity advantage.

But then Beuke, 13-3, let loose his biggest punches in the fifth, including a head-rocking left. In the waning seconds, Beuke delivered a power barrage, slamming an uppercut to the face that had Woods wounded on the ropes at the bell.

Beuke’s hammer shots continued in the sixth, leaving Woods reeling and inspected by a ringside doctor before the seventh started.

A straight right in the seventh staggered Woods, and Beuke closed his rally by claiming the eighth.

Promising Emiliano Alvarado finished New Jersey’s Devin Gantt by fourth-round TKO, completing a fight-long battering in his own corner to gain the stoppage at the 1:24 mark.

Alvarado, 10-0 (6 KOs), trained by Robert Garcia, flashed special skill for an 18-year-old in the first round alone, setting up power punches that backed and dazed Gantt, then turned southpaw for a sequence and closed the punishment with a flurry that had Gantt out of sorts.

When Gantt began walking to Alvarado’s corner to close the round, Alvarado smiled and motioned Gantt to the correct opposite corner.

A jarring left-right combination to the head in the third sent Gantt to the ropes and Alvarado set up more flurries in the final minute by landing a crushing left to the head.

“I got him hurt, and I knew the end was coming soon,” Alvarado, of Coachella, California, said.

Garcia also cornered middleweight Leo Ruiz 17-1 (9 KOs) of San Bernardino, California, to a fourth-round TKO over Maine’s Casey Streeter, 15-3-2.

Ruiz slammed a left to Streeter’s head in the third to punctuate his showing, then teed off repeatedly with power rights to close the session, leaving Streeter on wobbled legs.

Following another massive right to the head in the fourth, the bout was waved over at the 1:23 mark.

“I stayed patient, was breaking him down little by little,” Ruiz said.

Mexico lightweight Oswaldo Molina offered more teenage encouragement for Zuffa Boxing, flashing crisp shots from a 5-feet-10 ½ frame versus Josh Clark. 

Clark, 9-2, presented stout resistance, going the distance before judges awarded Molina 9-0 victory by three 60-54 scores.

Unbeaten lightweight Dariial Kuchmenov, 10-0 (8 KOs), opened the card with a fourth-round TKO of Mexico’s Jorge Lagunas, 19-8. 

Kuchmenov, 23, had success going to Lagunas’ body, then turned to the jab to land snapping shots. That encouraged power rights by the Russian fighter, and hard rights to the body dropped Lagunas in the final 30 seconds of the third round.

A power right to the head in Kuchmenov’s dropped Lagunas again in the fourth, and punishing follow-up blows after an eight-count convinced referee Nelson to stop the fight 1:32 into the round.

“I’m getting better every day. I can be stronger, faster,” Kuchmenov said in the ring.