Andres Teran TKO6 Floyd Diaz ... On the Zuffa Boxing undercard in Las Vegas, Andres Teran bided his time, waited his moment, and eventually found the punch that mattered as he turned the tables on undefeated Floyd Diaz in their ten-round bantamweight contest. Diaz settled quickly and landed stiff shots during an impressive start, but nothing he landed deterred Teran from stalking him around the ring. By the mid-way point of Round 2, the Mexican had found his range and was responding to Diaz’s shots in kind, but the Las Vegas-based Peruvian’s activity and more eye-catching shots ensured he held the early advantage. Teran kept him honest throughout and cut off the ring pretty effectively, but Diaz always managed to do just enough to keep him one step ahead of his more experienced opponent as he found the right shots at the right time to prevent Teran from teeing off on him. But that all changed in round six, when Teran connected clean with a right hand that spun Diaz’s chin and put the Peruvian in big trouble. Teran saw his moment and poured on the pressure to eventually force referee Thomas Taylor to step in to spare Diaz further punishment. The end came with Teran 5-0 down on all three scorecards, as “Loquillo” scored a huge come-from-behind victory to take his record to 19-2 with the 14th knockout of his career.
ADDITIONAL RESULTS
Tony Hirsch Jr continued his emergence as a bona fide talent in the Zuffa Boxing lightweight division with a highlight-reel knockout of fellow unbeaten prospect Jaybrio Pe Benito taking his record to 9-0-2 (5 KOs). Both men entered the ring having already picked up notable victories inside the Zuffa Boxing ring, and it was Pe Benito who started the faster of the pair as he quickly got to work, throwing combinations. But, after gauging his opponent’s timing, Hirsch started to counter effectively, with one ramrod straight right connecting clean for the most eye-catching shot of the first two rounds. By the third round, Hirsch had seen enough, and the Oakland native put his foot on the accelerator as he lined up Pe Benito, then finished him in highlight-reel fashion. Three jab-to-right-hand combinations found their mark in quick succession, with the final shot sending Pe Benito face-first to the canvas for a show-stopping knockout.
The welterweight bout between Damoni Cato-Cain and Vernon “Sub-Zero” Brown served up a classic boxer-versus-puncher matchup, and after eight rounds of non-stop action, it was the boxer who was left with his hand raised in victory as Cato-Cain claimed his tenth professional win. Brown fought like a man with full faith in his knockout power as he loaded up with heavy shots throughout the fight. But Cato-Cain was the sharper, slicker fighter, and he used those skills to good effect throughout the contest as he utilized his six-inch reach advantage and superior speed to consistently score with smart combinations. From the mid-point of the fight onward, Brown tried to up the aggression, and ended each round with a vicious salvo as he landed his best punches of the fight in the last thirty seconds of rounds fourt through six. But, despite Brown’s heavy shots, Cato-Cain’s chin held up well, while his conditioning ensured that he was half a step ahead throughout. A left hand in close saw Cato-Cain touch down in the final round, but referee Allen Huggins ruled it a trip, rather than a knockdown. Once the action resumed, Cato-Cain happily stood in the pocket with Brown who, despite his best efforts, couldn’t find a punch to turn the fight in his favor. After a brief wait while the commission studied replay footage of the potential knockdown, the no-knockdown verdict stood, and the final scorecards reflected the level of success each man had in the fight, with Cato-Cain getting the victory with scores of 78-74 (twice) and 79-73.
Undefeated lightweights Brady Ochoa and Adrian Serrano battled to a majority draw after six entertaining rounds at Zuffa Boxing 04 back in March, and at The Chelsea the pair ran it back in an action-packed rematch, with Serrano eventually emerging as the winner via unanimous decision. Unsurprisingly, given how well they already knew each other, there was no feeling-out process as both fighters planted their feet and threw with vicious intent early. Serrano was the aggressor, pushing forward, throwing heavy shots, but Ochoa countered smartly with sharp, accurate shots at the end of Serrano’s flurries. By the third round, Serrano’s relentless forward pressure and power punching had started to have an effect on Ochoa’s output, with the teenager noticeably less able to respond with power shots of his own. The back-and-forth action continued through the fourth round, but in the fifth, Ochoa found his second wind as he came out of the corner and unloaded a punishing salvo of power shots in a bid to slow the relentless pace of Serrano. But, in the closing minute of the round, Serrano was still there, walking forward and landing clean, crisp shots as the pair went toe-to-toe in a thrilling penultimate round. It set things up for a potentially crucial final frame, and both fighters emptied the tank and battled all the way to the judges’ scorecards once again. This time there was a winner, with Serrano getting the nod from all three ringside judges, who returned scores of 59-55 (twice) and 58-56 for “El Diamante”, who moves on to 7-0-2. Ochoa, meanwhile, takes the first loss of his career. But, given the sheer entertainment the pair delivered in their first two matchups, few would complain if they met in a trilogy bout further down the line.
The night kicked off with a battle of undefeated southpaw heavyweights, and it didn’t take long for the heavy leather to start flying as Uzbekistan’s Jakhongir Zokirov stopped American Zach Spiller in the second round. A beautiful one-two combination from Zokirov landed clean and sent Spiller to the canvas just as the ten-second clapper sounded at the end of the first round. That knockdown at the end of the round gave Zokirov the encouragement to up his output in Round 2, and he started to connect with Spiller at will. Spiller hung tough, and even landed a big counter left of his own that gave the Uzbek a moment’s pause, but Zokirov was determined to get the finish, and he completed the job with a vicious flurry of unanswered shots that forced referee Tony Weeks to step in at the 2:02 mark.
