By Keith Idec
Mike Alvarado resumed his comeback by stopping a game Martin Martinez on Saturday night in Oklahoma City.
The 37-year-old Alvarado beat Martinez by technical knockout after the ninth round in a scheduled 10-round welterweight bout on the Gilberto Ramirez-Roamer Angulo undercard at Chesapeake Energy Arena. Alvarado (39-4, 27 KOs) was bloodied and bruised himself before referee Mike England determined that the nasty gash over Martinez’s left eye was too dangerous for him to compete in the final round.
Mexico’s Martinez made their fight competitive in its second half and seemed to buzz Alvarado with a right hand with just under 10 seconds to go in the ninth round. A ringside physician nearly stopped their bout with 31 seconds remaining in the ninth round due to Martinez’s cut, but he allowed the action to continue.
The 27-year-old Martinez (18-15-1, 11 KOs, 1 NC) has lost by knockout or technical knockout nine times since he turned pro in July 2009.
Alvarado sustained a cut over his left eye in the sixth round, but it didn’t bleed nearly as bad as Martinez’s wound. Martinez had some success in the sixth and seventh rounds, particularly with his left hook, as Alvarado appeared to start tiring.
Alvarado absorbed several left hooks in the early rounds, which caused some swelling beneath Alvarado’s right eye. By the third round, the cut that eventually led to the stoppage opened over Martinez’s left eye.
Alvarado, a former WBO interim junior welterweight champ from Thornton, Colorado, fought for the first time since knocking out Sidney Siqueira (26-13-1, 17 KOs) in the fourth round August 19 in Lincoln, Nebraska.
In the bout before Alvarado’s victory, featherweight prospect Chris Zavala made an impressive professional debut by beating Tyler Pacheco by unanimous decision in a four-rounder. Zavala won by scores of 40-35, 40-35, 39-36.
The 18-year-old Zavala, a decorated amateur from Long Beach, California, signed a promotional contract with Bob Arum’s Top Rank Inc. earlier this month. Pacheco, of Abilene, Texas, slipped to 1-2.
Zavala knocked down Pacheco with 40 seconds to go in the third round, when he landed a left-right combination that dumped Pacheco into the bottom rope. Zavala later also connected with a left hook to Pacheco’s body that made Pacheco move away from him with just under a minute left in the fourth round.
The first fight on the card featured Aaron Morales, a 19-year-old bantamweight prospect from Oklahoma City. Morales (3-0, 2 KOs) out-worked Mexico’s David Martino (5-5, 4 KOs) to win a unanimous decision in their four-rounder.
Morales won all four rounds on each of the judges’ scorecards (40-36, 40-36, 40-36). Morales was the aggressor throughout their bout, landed hard body and head shots and rocked Martino by landing a right hand to the side of his head early in the fourth round.
Martino landed some power shots of his own, just too infrequently to win any of the four rounds.
Keith Idec is a senior writer/columnist for BoxingScene.com. He can be reached on Twitter @Idecboxing.
