By Jake Donovan

As if this boxing weekend wasn't thin enough, Monte Meza-Clay gave us even less time to take in the sport. The diminutive crowd favorite made quick work of Fernando Omar Lizarragga, scoring a body shot knockout in the opening round of their Telefutura-televised main event Friday night in Monroeville, PA.

Meza-Clay was a considerable favorite going in, but the fight turned out to be an even greater mismatch than anticipated. Those who turned out at the Expo Mart to watch their hometown hero in action were forced to find value in the 91 seconds they were offered.

As brief an encounter as it was, there was barely 80 seconds of actual fighting. A Meza-Clay left hook to the body sent Lizarragga to the deck for the bout's only knockdown. The Mexican decided the canvas was the safest place to be at that point, remaining down while referee Rick Steigerwald issued the full ten count.

The official time was 1:31 of round one.

The win was the eighth straight for Meza-Clay, who cruises to 28-1 (19KO). The rising featherweight has now scored four stoppage in a row, and six in his last eight fights since suffering the lone loss of his career two years ago.

A real contender would be the next logical step, and in a world of one linear champion per division, a rumored future matchup against Steve Luevano would be just that. But in an era where a title shot is seemingly at every corner, such a fight would be just that, with Luevano possessing one of the four major alphabet featherweight titles.

It's highly unlikely that Lizarragga ever again fights for a title of any kind. The Mexican journeyman extends his winless streak to three straight (0-2-1 over that stretch), falling to 16-5-1 (12KO) with the loss. His last win came nearly two years ago; unless he returns to club-level opposition, it could be quite some time before he sees his next victory.

One man who will see wins for quite some time is talented Philly junior middleweight prospect Latif Mundy, who made the cross-state trek to beat up on easily handle regionally-based George Rivera in scoring a 4th round stoppage.

The bout was a considerable step up for Mundy (8-0, 3KO), with his young career largely limited to no-hopers going into tonight's fight. Against Rivera, Mundy shined like an old pro, dominating the fight before forcing the Virginia native to quit on his stool after the 4th round of their scheduled eight.

With his first fight of 2008 finally in the books, Mundy looks for bigger and better things to come. Expect him to see a lot more of him, at least on the Telefutura, ESPN2 and ShoBox level, in the near future.

Rivera falls to 8-2 (3KO) with the loss, ending a seven-fight win streak.

The card was presented by World Class Fight Promotions and Don Chargin Productions.

Jake Donovan is a member of the Boxing Writers Association of America and the Tennessee Boxing Advisory Board. Contact Jake at JakeNDaBox@gmail.com.