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Another fight, another knockout victory for Kerman Lejarraga. The hard-hitting welterweight contender stopped late-sub Johnny Navarrete in round six Saturday night at the Palacio de Congresos in Marbella, Spain. The 26-year-old Lejarraga slowly broke Navarrete down in each round. Navarrete battled and gave a good account of himself, but looked like he was in survival mode by round four.
LOS ANGELES - Mikey Garcia's mind is made up, whether you like it or not. Errol Spence is the opponent he wants next. Not Vasiliy Lomachenko. Not Manny Pacquiao. Not Terence Crawford. Errol Spence and Errol Spence, only.
Masayuki Ito dropped Christopher Diaz once en route to a 12 round unanimous decision victory late Saturday night at the Civic Center in Kissimmee, Florida. With the win, Ito claimed the vacant WBO junior lightweight title. Ito came into the fight as the underdog against the popular Diaz, who hails from Barranquitas, Puerto Rico. It felt like a home crowd for Diaz, as Kissimmee is a suburb of Orlando, where there is a large Puerto Rican population that resides in the area.
Karlos Balderas is as smart in a boxing ring as he is outside of it. Balderas understands the fight game very well, but also wants to have as much say about his young and promising pro career. Which is why he, along with his older brother Jose, are fighting more often in recent fights.
Featherweight Carlos Ornelas is aware of the history of world titleholders from the Tijuana area. He hopes to add his name to that impressive list of pugilists. Ornelas will face Jetro Pabustan of the Philippines Saturday night at the Auditorio Municipal in Tijuana, Baja California, Mexico. The 10 round bout will air on beIN Sports en Espanol in the United States (11 p.m. ET/ 8 p.m. PT).
Former world junior bantamweight title challenger Antonio Nieves returns to action tonight. Nieves will square off against Christian Esquivel in an eight round stay-busy bout at the Hollywood Casino in Columbus, Ohio. Nieves (17-2-2, 9 knockouts) has not fought since losing by knockout to three-division world titleholder Naoya Inoue on Sept. 9. Nieves lost a close split decision to Nikolai Potapov six months before the Inoue fight.
Junior welterweight Wilberth Lopez won a hard-fought eight round split decision over Alfonso Olvera late Saturday night before a sold-out crowd of 1,687 at the Casino Del Sol in Tucson, Arizona.
Fringe lightweight contender Marcos Villasana won a 12 round split decision over Pablo Vicente Saturday night at the Centro de Convenciones Azul in Ixtapa Zihuatanejo, Guerrero, Mexico.
Former middleweight contender Curtis Stevens won by knockout Saturday night, but it was the actions outside the ring afterwards that was more newsworthy. Stevens stopped Carlos Jairo Cruz at the end of the fourth round at the Gimnasio Multiuso Nani Marrero in Santiago de los Caballeros, in the Dominican Republic.
Cruiserweight Alexey Egorov notched the biggest win of his career thus far on paper Friday night, stopping Lateef Kayode after the sixth round at the Florentine Gardens in El Monte, California. Both fighters had their moments early in the competitive fight, but Egorov was sharper and his punches began to take their toll on Kayode, who appeared discombobulated during rounds four and five from the punches he was receiving.