Featherweight Mirco Cuello made Friday a short night.
Cuello of Arroyo Seco, Santa Fe, Argentina, knocked out Sergio Rios of Sonora, Mexico, in the second round at the Martyrs of Benina Stadium in Benghazi, Libya.
Cuello, 24, started patiently, but in the second round dropped Rios, also 24, with a left hand. That was the beginning of the end. Cuello would land a left hook to the body immediately after Rios got up, which floored Rios once again and left him counted out.
Cuello improved to 16-0 (13 KOs) and now holds the vacant WBA interim featherweight title. The outright WBA title will be on the line August 16 with Nick Ball attempting to defend the strap from unbeaten Sam Goodman. Rios, who suffered the first defeat of his career, is now 19-1 (7 KOs).
Earlier on the card, light heavyweight Albert Ramirez of El Vigia, Venezuela, picked up a seventh-round technical knockout over Jerome Pampellone. The time was 1 minute, 19 seconds.
Ramirez, a 33-year-old southpaw, controlled the fight with his jab against the 29-year-old Pampellone. Ramirez, a 2016 Venezuelan Olympian, dropped Pampellone, who is originally from the United Kingdom but now lives in Auckland, New Zealand, at the end of the sixth round with a right hook. Ramirez would stop him with another right hook in the seventh round.
With the win, Ramirez becomes the WBA interim light heavyweight titleholder, with the outright belt being held by the lineal champion Dmitry Bivol.
Ramirez now improved to 22-0 (19 KOs), and Pampellone fell to 19-3 (12 KOs).
Junior lightweight Josue Francisco Aguero of Catamarca, Argentina, won a 10-round unanimous decision over Mexico’s Diego Ortiz Aleman. The scores were all 100-90.
Aguero, 24, moved to 14-0 (7 KOs), and the 30-year-old Aleman dropped to 20-4-1 (13 KOs).
Lucas Ketelle is the author of “Inside the Ropes of Boxing,” a guide for young fighters, a writer for BoxingScene and a member of the Boxing Writers Association of America. Find him on X at @BigDogLukie.
