By Chris Cella
The co-main event of the night was off to a fast paced start as Jorge “King” Diaz (17-1, 10 KO) and Yenifel Vicente (24-1-2, 16 KO) got out of the gate with an explosion of action in the first round.
Vicente looked to use his power to establish the pace of the fight early on, and found success with his right hand. He lost a substantial amount of weight in preparing for this fight, and many thought that if it went the full eight rounds, conditioning would become a factor.
In the fourth round Vicente continued to find a home for his uppercut, and timed Diaz perfectly throwing a lazy left hand, catching him on the chin and dropping him to the canvas.
Diaz was able to get back to his feet, but Vicente immediately pounced on him and continued throwing heavy hands, catching him again with another right upper cut, prompting the referee to jump in and call an end to the bout.
In the main event of the night, undefeated bantamweights Jundy Maraon (15-0-1, 12 KO) went to war with Juan Carlos Payano (13-0, 7 KO) in a WBA Bantamweight Eliminator bout.
From the onset of the fight Payano showed he had the faster hands and was able to get his punches off and land more than Maraon. In the first round there was a clash of heads which resulted in Payano being cut above his right eye. It was ruled a headbutt, and later changed to the cut being caused by a punch, but in the end it didn’t make a difference.
In round three Payano continued to control the action, but with just seconds left in the round Maraon landed a straight left and put Payano to the canvas.
But to commence the fourth round Payano had his legs back under him and continued his dominating ways, picking apart the offense and defense of Maraon. Payano’s corner did a solid job of keeping the cut in check to allow their fighter to continue, and he made the most of it.
Each round he seemed more comfortable at letting his hands go, and continued to land more shot on the stationary Maraon.
In round 7 he threw heavy shots and caught Maraon with a looping left hand to the temple which sent the fighter unconscious to the canvas, when the fight was immediately stopped.
Payano showed that he is ready to battle with the top dogs in the division and has the power to be a viable threat to any of the belt holders.
