Vyacheslav Shabranskyy Blasts Out Tomas Riojas in Three

By Francisco Salazar

Tomas Riojas became the latest victim in Vyacheslav Shabranskyy's growing list of knockout victims.

Shabranskyy knocked out Riojas in the third round before a sell-out crowd at Belasco Theatre in Los Angeles, Calif.

With the win, Shabranskyy improves to 17-0, 14 KOs. Riojas falls to 10-6-1, 3 KOs.

Shabranskyy was content to box the shorter Riojas from the outside. As the bout progressed, Shabranskyy began closing the distance between himself and Riojas.

Midway through the third round, Shabranskyy dropped Riojas with a straight right hand to the head. Riojas stood up on wobbly legs, but was sent reeling towards a corner from another hard right to the head. Referee Raul Caiz, Jr. wisely stepped in and stopped the bout at 1:43.

"I didn't think about a knockout going into the fight," said Shabranskyy after the fight.

Riojas has now lost six of his last nine bouts.

Junior lightweight Ivan Delgado scored a knockout victory over Alejandro Ochoa in round seven. Delgado (10-0-1, 3 KOs) scored a flash knockdown in round one, but Ochoa (7-12-2, 1 KO) was not visibly hurt. Ochoa hung in there, taking the fight to Delgado and outboxing him at times. Delgado stunned Ochoa with a right uppercut in round four and seemed to be looking to set up a left hook. It came midway through round seven as Delgado hurt Ochoa with a left hook to the head. Delgado followed up with two more left hooks, dropping Ochoa to the canvas. Referee Dr. Lou Moret waved the fight over at 1:42.

Welterweight Alexis Rocha (4-0, 3 KOs) stopped Israel Villela in the first round. Rocha dropped Villela with a left hook to the head. After Villela (2-3, 1 KO) got up, he was met with a barrage of punches that prompted referee Raul Caiz, Jr. to stop the fight at 1:18. Rocha is the younger brother of featherweight contender Ronny Rios.

Lightweight Oscar Duarte (7-0-1, 4 KOs) knocked out Omar Garcia (5-4, 1 KO) at 58 seconds of the first round. It was Duarte's first bout working with trainer Joel Diaz.

In the opening bout of the Golden Boy Promotions card, junior welterweight David Mijares (3-0, 2 KOs) knocked out Jorrell Sparenberg (0-2) at 1:36 of the second round.

Francisco A. Salazar has written from Boxingscene.com since September of 2012 and has covered boxing in Southern California and abroad since 2000. Francisco also covers boxing for the Ventura County (Calif.) Star newspaper, RingTV, and Knockout Nation. He can be reached by email at santio89@yahoo.com or on Twitter at FSalazarBoxing