By Rick Reeno
Staples Center, Los Angeles, California - In a battle for the vacant WBC interim-super bantamweight championship, Julio Ceja (29-1, 27KOs) got off the deck in the third round to stop Hugo Ruiz (35-3, 30KOs) in the fifth of a slugfest.
There was a pretty slow pace to start things off. Both guys could punchers and were cautious with their punches. For the most part Ceja was pressing forward with Ruiz fighting off the back foot. Ruiz was using his jab as a range finder and looking for big counters in return.
In the third, the patience of Ruiz paid off as he caught Ceja with a big counter left hook while he was coming inside. Ruiz jumped on him in the closing seconds, throwing bombs with both hands but wasn't able to get Ceja out of there.
Ceja resumed form in the fourth, coming forward with digging shots to the body and hooks to the head. Ruiz gave as good as he got with some very hard counters. The right side of Ruiz's face was starting to swell up.
During the fifth, a massive hook by Ceja sent Ruiz down on his back. Ruiz barely made it up and Ceja blasted away with hard combinations until the referee made a merciful stoppage as Ruiz was about to go down a second time.