Wilfredo Méndez TKO9 Gabriel Mendoza ... Puerto Rico's Wilfredo “Bimbito” Méndez successfully defended his WBO 105-pound belt with a ninth-round technical knockout win Colombia's Gabriel Mendoza at the El Panama Hotel in Panama City. Méndez (16-1, 6 KOs) dominated Mendoza (30-7-2, 23 KOs) all the way, until the referee stopped the action at 1:28 of round nine. Mendoza had a cut on his right eye and swelling on his forehead. In the bout there were several head clashes, but they were not the cause of Mendoza's loss. “I feel very happy to debut in Panama with this victory and represent Puerto Rico while maintaining this title,” said Méndez, the only current Puerto Rican (male) champion. “We fought with the plan we had to box and we could go out with our hands up.”

 

Mendoza, age 40, is likley finsihed. He lost a prior IBF title shot to Jose Argumedo.

 

The Puerto Rican, who won his title with a unanimous decision victory over Filipino Vic Saludar in August 2019, said that in his immediate future there is “the mandatory fight with the Chinese Jing Xiang and then fight with the other elite champions.”

 

José Martín Estrada W10 Luis Lebrón... On the same show Mexico’s José Martín Estrada (11-2-1, 5 KOs) defeated Puerto Rico's Luis Lebrón (17-2-1, 10 KOs) via unanimous decision in a super bantamweight bout. Lebrón seemed to dominate most of the early rounds with good punches to Estrada’s face and body causing swelling and wounding to the eyes from the third round. But Estrada came from behind and knocked down Lebrón with a short right uppercut in the seventh round to control the action in the latter part of the match and take the win. The judges saw it for Estrada with scores of 95-92 and 96-92 (twice). source for both results: wbo