Ponce De Leon Knocks Out Guerrero in Two to Retain WBO Title

As a late replacement opponent for Alejandro Barrera, Gerson Guerrero must have felt that his best chances against Daniel Ponce De Leon was to stand right in front of the power puncher and go toe-to-toe with him in the center of the ring.  With both fighters landing their fair share of hooks upstairs, it was Ponce De Leon who first wobbled his opponent, having him in trouble with just seconds left in the first frame.  However, Ponce De Leon was able to capitalize on his power half way through the second round when he landed an overhand right on the top of Guerrero’s head.  The blow sent Guerrero to his knees, and wondering if he had made the right choice to take on such a hard hitter with such late notice.  Guerrero was up at the count of eight, but when the fight resumed he was being cornered and beaten by the free-swinging Ponce De Leon.  The end came when a right uppercut by the WBO 122-pound champ landed firmly on the chin of Guerrero.  Stunned, Guerrero left himself open for another right uppercut seconds later that put Guerrero out on his feet.  A crushing left hook was the final blow Ponce De Leon landed, sending Guerrero crashing to the canvas at 1:50 of round two.  Referee Pat Russell disregarded a count, instead using the time to get the ringside doctor to Guerrero’s side as soon as possible.  Ponce De Leon retains his WBO title and improves to 28-1 (26 KO’s), while Guerrero falls to 31-7 (23 KO’s).

Z Gorres Floors Miranda Thrice, Wins by Unanimous Decision

A straight left by the exciting junior bantamweight Z “The Dream” Gorres had Pedro Miranda on the canvas half way into the first round, and quick combinations of uppercuts and hooks by Z gave Miranda a battle worn appearance by the fourth frame.  Another straight left by the southpaw Z put Miranda on seat once again in the fifth, but by the end of the seventh, Gorres was shaking his head in frustration, wondering how many more thunderous right hooks and monstrous lefts he needed to administer to Miranda’s head before he would finally go down for the count.   By the time the fight entered into the ninth round of action, Miranda’s cheek was pushing up against his right eye due to the constant punishment Z was applying to it with his power left crosses.  A minute into the round, referee Raul Caiz Jr. was forced get closer to the fighters as Z continued to punish Miranda with his right hook-straight left combo that had been working so well for him throughout the fight.  Caiz allowed the fight to go on, and within the first minute of the tenth round, Miranda was down again from another one of Z’s left that looked more like a push.  Miranda put up a futile attempt to argue with Caiz while being given the mandatory eight-count, because when the final bell sounded, all three judges saw the fight a shutout with scores of 100-87.  Z improves to 23-1-1 (12 KO’s), while Miranda falls to 30-11-2 (25 KO’s).


In other action:

Enrique Ornelas and Sergio Rios both fought a tough fight with each of them landing impressive shots throughout their eight round battle.  It was Ornelas, however, who took every round on all three judges’ scorecards, unanimously defeating Rios with scores of 80-72.