By Jake Donovan
Louis Rose came up big in a knockout win over Andrew Hernandez with less than a minute to go in their headlining bout Saturday evening in Fort McDowell, Arizona.
If the fight were a movie, the equivalent would be sitting through two hours of drawn-out dialogue only for the big payoff to come in the end.
Rose and Hernandez spent far too much of the fight respecting one another's abilities, especially since punch resistant is hardly either fighter's strong suit. Both suffered first round knockouts in their only career defeats prior to Saturday, yet neither seemed in a hurry to chin check the other—a
t least not through the first six rounds.
The flow to that point was enough for Rose to pile up points, although hardly engaging fans and home viewers in the process. That all changed in round seven, when the California-based middleweight began dialing in his right hand. Once he saw that it hurt Hernandez nearly every time it landed after being programmed to throw it correctly, Rose considerably picked up the aggression.
It helped pave the way for a highlight reel finish in the 8th and final round. Rose deposited Herandez on the canvas midway through the frame for the bout's lone knockdown. Upon his opponent rising, Rose moved in for the kill, rocking a dazed Hernandez before the fight was brought to a halt.
The official time was 2:02 of round eight.
Rose moves to 13-2-1 (5KOs), while Hernandez dips to 9-2-1 (1KOs), with both losses having come in his past three starts.
In the evening's chief support, Carlos Castro picked up perhaps his best win to date with a six-round shutout over Juan Carlos Guillen.
Scores were 60-53 across the board in a battle of unbeate featherweights. Castro (12-0, 5KOs) floored Guillen towards the end of round five for the bout's lone knockdown, but was forced to settle for a landslide decision as Guillen (7-1-1, 3KOs) was able to make it to his feet and to the final bell.
Paul Romero (5-0-1) breezed through a four-round decision over Raymond Chacon (5-17, 0KOs). Scores were 40-36 on all three judges' scorecards. All 22 career fights for Chacon have gone to the scorecards, having never been stopped and yet to score a knockout.
Nathaniel Gallimore scored the evening's first knockout, stopping Juan Carlos Rojas in the third round of their scheduled six-round contest.
Gallimore (9-0, 8KOs) dominated his sub .500 opponent before forcing the stoppage just shy of the bout's midway point. A breakneck schedule for the Illinois-based Jamaican has him fighting next week for what will be his third fight in as many weekends and ninth of 2015.
Phoenix-based super featherweight Keenan Carbajal scored a six-round decision over Jose Silveria (15-16-1). Scores were 59-55 across the board for Carbajal (7-2-1, 4KOs), who is trained by his grandfather, Danny Carbajal.
Alexix Zuzueta came close to scoring a clean shutout of Sergio Lopez, winning by tallies of 59-54 across the board in their six-round super flyweight bout.
All bouts were streamed live on the
website of Iron Boy Promotions
, who co-promoted the event with RJJ Promotions, named after former four-division world champion Roy Jones Jr.
Jake Donovan is the managing editor of BoxingScene.com. Twitter: @JakeNDaBox