Rocha 98-91, And He Earned Every Point
Right then. Alexis Rocha beat Jose Ramirez by unanimous decision — 98-91, 98-91, 97-92 — and it was the best ten rounds of the night by a distance.
Ramirez, a former unified world champion at 140lb, moved up to welterweight and ran the early rounds on pure class and experience. Then Rocha found his range with that long southpaw left and the fight turned into a proper tear-up.
A clash of heads in the ninth opened Rocha up badly. He was checked over by the doctor, waved on, and then came storming back and appeared to put Ramirez down — a knockdown Ramirez contested. Both men emptied the tank in the tenth. Brilliant fight.
I said in our preview that Rocha is far more dangerous countering than initiating, and that is exactly how he won this. He is now one phone call from a name fight at 147lb and he deserves it.
Cortes 97-93 Across The Board Over Magsayo
Andres Cortes opened the main card and comprehensively outboxed Mark Magsayo over ten rounds, taking it 97-93 on all three cards.
Cortes built a big lead in the first half and then managed the rest of it intelligently. Magsayo, a former WBC featherweight champion, had his moments late but never seriously threatened to turn it. That is a five-fight winning streak snapped and the Filipino falls to 29-3.
Cortes moves to 26-0 with 13 knockouts and is now an awkward, unavoidable problem for everybody at lightweight. He does not have one-punch power, but he is levels above most of the division at controlling range.
Vanhouter Left Akpejiori Out Cold
The heavyweight bout lasted 118 seconds and you will see the finish on your feed all week.
Da'Mazion Vanhouter, 21 years old and 13-0, landed two right hooks and Raphael Akpejiori fell backwards to the canvas unconscious. No count needed. It was over at 1:58 of the first.
Odd sub-plot: Vanhouter loaded up on a haymaker, Akpejiori pushed the arm away, and Vanhouter immediately signalled to his corner that something felt wrong with it. He said afterwards it just felt weird. He then went and finished the fight anyway.
That is a fifth consecutive stoppage and a fourth straight first-round knockout. He is not a prospect any more. He is a problem.
Panin Stopped Linger In Four
Vlad Panin took his career win tally to 25 with a fourth-round stoppage of Dakota Linger at super welterweight.
Panin nearly had him in the first with a body attack that had Linger covering up in the corner, and the ringside doctor flagged that he would be watching closely. Two more body shots in the fourth backed Linger to the ropes, Panin unloaded, and Thomas Taylor stepped in at 1:22.
Fourth stoppage in a row, second win under the Zuffa banner, and he used the post-fight to ask the matchmakers for a step up. Give it to him.
Sean Garcia Opened The Night
Ryan's younger brother Sean Garcia got the card underway with a majority decision over Abraham Morales, scored 56-56, 58-54, 58-54.
Garcia showed proper hand speed and dropped Morales with a smart counter late in the third. A harsh-looking point deduction in the fifth gave Morales a route back and he took his best round, but Garcia boxed the last cleanly enough. He moves to 8-1-1.
Luke's Verdict
Make no mistake — this undercard was better value than the main event, and that is not a criticism of Ryan Garcia, it is a compliment to the matchmaking.
My calls: Rocha gets a top-five welterweight next and beats him, and Vanhouter is fighting a ranked heavyweight before this time next year and stopping him too. Cortes is the one nobody at 135lb will want.
Full main event report on our news page.