Boxing South Of The Border: Weekend Results

Big card last night at Arena Roberto Duran in Panama City, Panama with a few big names in action.

Local flyweight Luis Concepcion, 18-1 (13), won his 15th straight contest, picking up the Interim WBA crown in the process, by dramatically stopping Mexico’s Omar Salado, 21-2-2 (12), at 0:39 of the 12th round.

With the victory, Concepcion is now firmly entrenched in the top five of the division and could meet the winner of the upcoming Denkaosan Kaovichit vs. Daiki Kameda WBA title contest.

Hard punching ex-WBO super bantam champ Daniel Ponce de Leon, 37-2 (31), was the highlight of the support bill, defeating hard-nosed former world title challenger Roinet Caballero, 27-9-1 (19), by wide margins after 12 rounds to win a WBA featherweight title eliminator.

Ibeth Zamora Silver, 6-2 (0), bounced back from a failed bid to unseat WBA Female light fly champ Yesica Yolanda Bop only one month ago to capture the Interim WBA Female minimumweight belt by outpointing 36 year od Colombian slugger Ada Fernandez, 10-5 (7), over nine frames.

Heading up to Mexico last night, former WBO bantam boss Jhonny Gonzalez, 41-7 (35), came back from a WBA super bantam title loss in May with a crushing first KO of 37 year old ex-WBO Latino super bantam strapholder Jose Francisco Mendoza, 21-4-2 (17), at Gimnasio Rodrigo M. Quevedo in Chihuahua.

One of the world’s top welters was in action on Friday at Estadio Delmi in Salta, Argentina as 26 year old Luis Carlos Abregu, 28-0 (23), returned from his latest winning US performance by knocking out Diego Diaz Gallardo, 17-4-1 (10), in the fourth frame of a scheduled ten.

Abregu is nearing a world title shot and the impressive KO of ex-South American light middle champ Gallardo could be one of the last domestic appearances of “El Porto” for quite some time.

On the undercard, veteran Carlos Adan Jerez, 29-11-3 (15), pounded out a six round UD against durable Sante Fe opponent Francisco Nicolas Benitez, 3-6-1 (1).