Fundora, Josesito, Ramirez stop foes
By Jeff Zimmerman at ringside
In a super welterweight WBA world title eliminator, the “Towering Inferno” Sebastian Fundora (16-0-1, 11 KOs) from Coachella, CA at almost 6’6” used an array of uppercuts, hooks and straight shots to annihilate late replacement Habib Ahmed (27-2-1, 18 KOs) out of Accra, Ghana, on Saturday night in front of a raucous crowd at AT&T Stadium on the Spence-Garcia undercard. Fundora was originally scheduled to fight Jorge Cota. Once Fundora buckled the knees of Ahmed early in the first round with an uppercut, it was pretty much target practice for him. After another onslaught in round 2, referee Laurence Cole waived it off at 1:30 to earn the TKO victory of the scheduled 12. The tall, slender Fundora owned a 6 inch height advantage over the veteran Ahmed, although it appeared to be much more. The affable Fundora told PBC’s Jordan Plant ringside after the fight he wouldn’t mind fighting the likes of Julian Williams next, but first he has Christmas shopping to finish.
Welterweight “The Riverside Rocky” Josesito Lopez (38-8, 21 KOs) from Riverside, CA put on a dominating performance against Francisco Santana (25-9-1, 12 KOs) out of Santa Barbara, CA. Lopez dropped Santana in the first round with a right hook after shots to the body, again in rounds nine and tenth to score the TKO victory at 1:22 of the final round. Lopez was in control the whole way, although he was cautious at times as Santana swung for the fences himself. Lopez continues to get big fights with his fan-friendly style and with world-class trainer Robert Garcia in his corner. Lopez told Fightnews in an exclusive interview before the fight that he hopes to get another world title shot before he retires. He should be on his way with the big win in Dallas.
In a WBA world title eliminator, featherweight Eduardo Ramirez (24-2-3, 11 KOs) out of Los Mochis, Mexico, flattened Miguel Flores (24-4, 12 KOs) from Dallas with a vicious right hook in round 5 that landed squarely on the jaw of Flores and ended the fight. Ramirez set up the “kill” shot with a straight left that landed on the left shoulder of Flores. Flores somehow got to his feet and referee Laurence Cole began his count, but after a quick wobble, Cole rightly waved it off. Southpaw Ramirez controlled the first few rounds of the fight landing his right, left combinations as Flores did his best to counter. Ramirez, though, put an end to the fight at 20 seconds of round five with his big, one punch knockout. Flores picked up Ramirez to show good sportsmanship after the loss.
Featherweight Isaac “Canelito” Avelar (17-2, 10 KOs) a southpaw out of Aguascalientes, Mexico, went toe to toe with Sakaria “Desert Storm” Lukas (23-1, 16 KOs) from Windhoek, Namibia over ten rounds. The active Avelar was on cruise control early in the fight landing his lead left and combos against the counterpunching Lukas. In the 5th round, Lukas rocked Avelar with a big left followed by a right to end the round. The 6th round, again, saw Lukas initiate the action as he ended the round with another big shot. Avelar regrouped as the two warriors stood in the center of the ring exchanging their best shots the rest of the fight, especially in the 10th and final round as both guys let their hands go til the final bell. In a very competitive fight, all three judges ruled in favor of “Canelito” 98-92.
In a dominating performance, welterweight Vito Mielnicki (7-0, 4 KOs) dropped Steven Pulluaim (5-3, 1 KO) in the first and second rounds to win going away 60-52 on all three acorecards. Mielnicki was on the attack from the jump as he landed flurries to the head and body of Pulluaim who was able to survive the fight after a horrific start.
In the first tv fight on FS2 PBC, Dallas’ super middleweight Burley Brooks (6-1, 5 KOs), a chief sparring partner of Errol Spence Jr., was in a bruising fight with the rugged Marco Delgado (7-1, 5 KOs) out of Anaheim, CA over six rounds. It was a scrappy fight from the opening bell as Delgado landed a rabbit punch to the back Brooks head and when he retaliated, he was quickly warned by referee Neil Yoing. Brooks picked up his activity in the 2nd round landing to the body of the shorter Delgado as Delgado worked inside the lankier Brooks. In the fifth round, Brooks was given two low blow warnings and when he went south again, he was deducted a point. In the sixth and final round, Brooks landed another low blow and was deducted another point. In the end, the low blows were too much too overcome for Brooks. Scores read 59-53 twice for Delgado and 57-55 for Brooks as Delgado came out with split decision victory.
In an entertaining battle of Texans, super bantamweight Juan Tapia (10-3, 3 KOs) out of Brownsville was a step ahead of the tough Fernando Garcia (13-3, 8 KOs) all night to win a unanimous decision. The stocky, muscled Tapia came out from the opening frame flicking his jab and displayed fast hands on Garcia. Garcia did his best to fend off Tapia, but he was relentless in his attack. Garcia had his moments when they exchanged, landing inside and with an occasional overhand right. Over eight rounds, two judges scored it 79-73 and the other 78-74 for Tapia. Garcia is a part of Derrick James stable of fighters at his gym in Dallas.
In the opening bout of the mega showdown between unified welterweight champ Errol “The Truth” Spence Jr. and two-division champ Danny “Swift” Garcia, lightweight Frank Martin (12-0, 9 KOs), a former 2016 National Golden Glove champ out of Indianapolis, showed a versatile attack to the head and body of veteran Tyrone Luckey (12-13-4, 8 KOs) out of Long Beach, NJ. Martin dropped Luckey twice in the second round, once in the fourth and one last time in the fifth where Luckey remained on one knee through the count of ten. It was one too many body shots from the slick southpaw who was in camp with Spence Jr. and had trainer Derrick James in his corner. Time 2:31 of round five of the scheduled eight as Martin remained undefeated with the KO.
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