Culiacan’s own Alexis Molina enjoyed his earliest night in the ring in more than two years.
Molina was the aggressor throughout the brief affair versus Nogales’ Jesus Mercado, whom he dropped and stopped in the second round of their ProBox TV co-feature. The battle of unbeaten bantamweights saw Molina floor Mercado, who took the full ten count to end the contest at 0:42 of round two Wednesday evening from Centro de Eventos Figolstase in Culiacan, Sinaloa, Mexico.
Mercado (5-1-1, 4KOs) was floored early into round two but seemed all too willing to end the night. He remained on a knee and shook his head to inform referee Guadalupe Quintero that he was done. Molina (9-0, 3KOs) picked up his first stoppage in two years—nearly to the day—and his quickest since a first-round knockout in his May 2021 pro debut.
Nazario Castro overcame a sluggish start to wear down and deal Juan Ramirez with the first stoppage defeat of his career. Castro consistently landed left hooks throughout their junior bantamweight affair, to where Ramirez’s corner called for the fight at 2:04 of round eight.
Ramirez (15-7, 8KOs) was game early in the contest and scored with body shots. Castro found his stride midway through the fight and remained in control for the duration of their televised opener. Ramirez was forced to deal with a cut over his right eye and the left hook-heavy attack of Castro (11-2-1, 6KOs) before he reached the point of no return.
Headlining the show, former junior flyweight titlist and current top ten junior bantamweight contender Pedro Guevara (39-3-1, 22KOs) of Mazatlan meets countryman Miguel Angel Herrera (22-5-5, 8KOs) in a scheduled ten-round bout.
Jake Donovan is a senior writer for BoxingScene.com. Twitter: @JakeNDaBox
