All in all, it was a pretty good Saturday night and we start off south of the border with a big card in Queretaro, Mexico where at the Plaza de Toros Juriquilla, light middleweight contender Julio Cesar Chavez, Jr., 36-0-1 (29), continued his meteoric rise with a ninth round KO of Italy's 154 lb titlist Tobia Guiseppe Loriga, 24-1-1 (6).

The Italian started aggressively but a patient Chavez scored with effective counters and floored the visitor in the second frame. The European fought his way out of trouble and resumed the pressure but didn't have enough power to interrupt the flow of Chavez, who continued to reduce Loriga's energy with carefully selected hurtful counters.

Once he had worn his rival down, Chavez began to go on the offensive and was extracting a heavy toll on Loriga before straining an ankle in the seventh. Despite the injury, Chavez nailed Loriga with a full-blooded right hand that had the Italian Champion taking a much needed knee as he was counted out at 1:47 of the ninth frame. More...