Montiel, Sanchez Jr. Score Dominant Wins In Tijuana

Former three division titlist Fernando Montiel was gunning for an early night, but ultimately had to settle for a landslide decision over Philippines' Rogelio Doliguez in their 10-round main event Saturday evening in Tijuana, Mexico. 

Scores were 99-88 across the board in favor of Montiel. 

The fight came dangerously close to not requiring judges or even a second round. Montiel had Doliguez down and dazed with a massive right hand late in round one. The shot was made of the stuff of Knockout of the Year entrants, but Doliguez avoided landing on the wrong end of that award by beating the count and making it out of the round.

Somehow, the visiting Filipino managed to avoid a similar fate, despite eating clean shots all night and frequently visiting the canvas. The majority of his trips to the deck were ruled as slips, although he received a tongue lashing from the referee both for his inability to remain on his feet and his penchant for throwing low blows. 

Montiel remained ever the professional, boxing for the majority of the night and letting his hands go any time he saw an opening. To his credit, Doliguez did enough to hear the final bell, but not enough to avoid a lopsided defeat. 

Montiel advances to 54-4-2 (39KOs) with the win, his eighth in a row dating back to 2012. The recently-turned 36-year old has designs on landing a title fight, having not worn an alphabet strap around his waist since the ringwalk leading into his eventual 2nd round knockout loss to Nonito Donaire in Feb. '11. 

Opening the telecast, former junior bantamweight titlist Juan Carlos Sanchez Jr. found his way back to the win column with a 10-round decision over veteran trialhorse Luis Melendez.

Scores were 99-91 and 100-90 (twice) in favor of Sanchez Jr. (20-3-1, 9KOs), fighting for the first time since a knockout loss to Zolani Tete in their title eliminator more than 15 months ago. 

Jake Donovan is the Managing Editor of BoxingScene.com. Twitter: @JakeNDaBox