Junior Younan didn’t need very long to conclude his business on Saturday night.
The 29-year-old Brooklyn native finished Luka Lozo at 2:43 of the first round at Paramount Theatre in Huntington, New York. Younan, now 22-0-1 (14 KOs), made a statement just 30 seconds into the fight, dropping the Croatian Lozo, 13-4-2 (12 KOs), with a left hook high on the head. Lozo made it to his feet but was unsteady.
Lozo did a good job of smothering Younan’s offense until the moment when he didn’t. With about 30 seconds remaining in the round, a short left uppercut to the sternum aired Lozo out, and referee Arthur Mercante stopped the bout without a count.
Younan has now won all three of his fights by knockout since signing with Joe DeGuardia’s Star Boxing last year, all at this same venue.
“This guy has a 95% knockout rate, and you saw what I did to him,” said Younan, who mentioned that he wanted a fight with WBA interim super middleweight titleholder Jose Armando Resendiz.
Lozo, also 29, saw his streak of five fights without a loss (4-0-1) come to an end. His two previous defeats came by unanimous decision against Eric Priest last year in Las Vegas, and a third-round stoppage against Kemahl Russell in Toronto a few months before that.
There were only two other boxing matches scheduled for the show – the rest of the undercard featured Muay Thai bouts – but those two boxing matches ended in surprising upsets.
In the co-featured bout, popular local attraction Isaah Flaherty suffered his first professional defeat, getting dropped three times en route to a unanimous decision loss against San Antonio’s Javier Vargas.
It was apparent early on that Vargas had an advantage in his footwork and ability to control his distance as he stunned Flaherty in the second round, first as a southpaw and then back in his natural orthodox stance. That edge became more pronounced in the third round as Vargas scored two knockdowns, first on a right hand followed by a sneaky left uppercut, and then a second time on a similar left uppercut.
Even as the fight became more one-sided, Flaherty, a resident of Rosedale, Queens, wasn’t ready to pack it in. Despite a third knockdown in the fourth round, Flaherty was able to rock Vargas, this time on a counter uppercut that nearly put Vargas down. Vargas was able to recover, and he put more punishment on Flaherty in the fifth and sixth to seal the deal.
Even with the victory, Vargas, now 7-2-1 (3 KOs), had respect for his opponent’s ability.
“My opponent, kudos to him, you hit hard, I have a freakin’ headache,” said Vargas, who adds he expects to return to the ring on November 8 in San Antonio.
Flaherty says Vargas’ style gave him trouble, but added that he feels confident he could make the adjustments to win a rematch.
“I’ve gotta give him credit for his style, his awkwardness. He had great footwork and he wouldn’t let me set my feet to throw the right punches,” said Flaherty, now 8-1 (4 KOs).
In the opening bout, Micky Scala, now 12-1 (6 KOs), saw his undefeated run come to an end as he was stopped in the second round by Jose Edgardo Perdomo, 8-7 (5 KOs), in a junior middleweight fight that had been scheduled for six rounds.
The 23-year-old Scala of Mesa, Arizona, looked to be in control when he left a right hand out too long and caught a left hook counter from his Uruguayan opponent. Scala was stunned and retreated to the ropes, and the fight was halted as he failed to answer the numerous punches that were raining down on him.
Perdomo, 31, had entered the fight with a record of 1-6 in fights outside of South America, with his lone previous win in those fights being a majority decision in Austria over the 10-0-2 Dielli Vranoci.
