Isaac Lucero continued to make a splash in his home region.
The rising junior middleweight prospect was far too much to handle for countryman Leonel Rodriguez, whom he stopped in the fifth round of their regional title fight. Lucero scored a body shot knockdown and later trapped Rodriguez on the ropes and let his hands go, at which point the fight was stopped at 2:44 of the fifth round Sunday evening in his hometown of La Paz, Baja California, Mexico.
The Imagen TV co-feature was one way, as Lucero was relentless from the opening bell. The unbeaten 25-year-old—originally from La Paz but who now lives in Tijuana—took the fight directly to Aguascalientes’ Rodriguez (11-4-1, 5KOs), who was outgunned and unable to turn the tide at any point of the fight.
Lucero drove home a left hook to the body that forced Rodriguez to the canvas early in round five. Rodriguez beat the count but Lucero (14-0, 10KOs) immediately stalked the 27-year-old and doled out punishment for the balance of the bout to earn his third consecutive stoppage victory.
The fifth-round exit marked Lucero’s earliest victory since April 2021, well before he began to step up his competition level. He has stopped four of his last six opponents, which have come in rounds seven (twice), eight and now five.
Headlining the show, Tijuana’s Kenia Enriquez (26-1, 11KOs) and San Cristóbal Huichochitlán’s Ibeth Zamora (33-7, 13KOs) meet in a scheduled ten-round interim WBC flyweight title fight between former full titleholders.
Jake Donovan is a senior writer for BoxingScene.com. Twitter: @JakeNDaBox
