Victor Morales blocked Diego De La Hoya at 1:08 of the second round of the scheduled 10-round featherweight bout.
Morales (18-0-1, 9 KOs) knocked De La Hoya twice in Round 2, the first time with a left hook. De La Hoya rose to his feet and engaged Morales in a brief skirmish only to come down from the other left.
De La Hoya (24-2, 11 KOs) couldn’t beat the count this time, dashing hopes of being a championship contender again.
Meanwhile, Morales, a 25-year-old amateur tennis player from Vancouver, Washington, took the biggest win of his career to date.
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Ghanaian Fredrick Lawson beat late substitute Estevan Villalobos of Mount Vernon, Washington, to win by a unanimous decision in a 10-round junior middleweight bout.
The official scores are 97-93, 96-94 and 96-94.
Lawson (30-3, 22 KOs) controlled most of the fighting from the outside, landing repeatedly and then many powerful shots to win rounds.
Villalobos (16-2-1, 12 KOs) played against Lawson well but he didn’t do enough – especially in the early rounds – to win the teamfight.
Lawson, who lives in Worchester, Massachusetts, has now won hand-to-hand combat since being stopped by Charles Hatley in 2021.
Villialobos suffered its first defeat since 2019.
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Promising superstar David Stevens survived an early knockdown and mental effort from veteran Marco Antonio Periban to win a unanimous decision in an eight-round match.
The official scores are 78-73, 78-83 and 77-74.
Stevens (13-0.9 KO), 22 years old from Reading, Pennsylvania, is a former amateur star. Periban (26-7-1, 17 KOs), a 38-year-old title challenger from Mexico, is currently 1-4 down in his last five games.
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Rising lightweight contender William Zepeda is scheduled to face Jaime Arboledo on Saturday at College Park Center in Arlington, Texas (DAZN).
Zepeda (27-0.23 KO) is a 26-year-old volumetric puncher from the Mexico City area. He is ranked in the Top 6 by three of the four main sanctioning agencies
Arboleda (19-2, 14 KOs) is a 28-year-old Panamanian living in Miami. He has won three games in a row since being stopped by Chris Colbert.
Also on the card, Diego De La Hoya will face Victor Morales in 10 featherweight rounds. And Frank Lawson will face Estevan Villalobos in a 10-round junior middleweight bout.
Card highlights start at 8 p.m. ET / 5 p.m. PT. The main event will take place later in the show.
Boxing Junkie will post the results of the main event and side features right after it ends. Just come back to this post and refresh when the time comes.
Full news – a battle story, photo gallery and analysis – will be posted in separate posts on the day of the battle and the day after.
Enjoy the battle!
