November 30, 2018
In collaboration with All Star Boxing and Boxeo Telemundo, Promoter Kris Lawrence and The Heavyweight Factory brought another exciting evening of fights at the Hard Rock Event Center at Seminole Hard Rock Hotel & Casino in Hollywood, FL. Dubbed “Rumble at the Rock III,” the main event featured a contest for the WBO-NABO Latino Bantamweight Championship.
In the Main Event of the evening, previously undefeated Yeison “El Mulo” Vargas (17-0, 12KOs) faced Mexico’s Ricardo “Hindu” Espinoza (21-2, 18 KOs) for the WBO Latino Bantamweight title. This matchup looked great on paper, but in the end was no contest. From the opening bell, the bout was all action and there was simply no feeling out process common in a ten-round title fight. The first round saw hard, scoring blows from both contestants, but round two was a slaughter in which Espinoza knocked his opponent to the canvas twice with devastating right hooks. At 1:19 of the round, Espinoza sent Vargas to the canvas for the third and final time.
In the co-main event, a ten-round battle of welterweights, the veteran and always game Breidis Prescott (31-14, 22KOs) faced Derrick Cuevas (18-0-1, 14 KOs). Round one began with action from both fighters and ended with Cuevas dropping Prescott via a chopping left hand towards the end of the round. Round two saw Prescott recovered and scoring to the body and head of Cuevas. Rounds three and four were close but leaning towards Prescott who controlled the space. However, Cuevas seemed to find a second wind in round five and began to control the pace of the fight. Cuevas did not let up this control and ended up with the Unanimous Decision.
Another exciting fight featured Miami’s Jessy Cruz, (14-7-1, 6 KOs) a crowd favorite vs. Isaias Martin Cardona (25-14, 17 KOs). Highlights of this featherweight contest included Cardona showboating in the first round, and eating a few clean jabs that snapped his head back. Cardona seemed to wisen up and there was no showboating in the second round. After going back to doing the Ali shuffle in the round three, Cardona was dropped from a straight right to the body from Cruz. After some more ring shenanigans , Cardona was dropped again in the fourth, prompting the ref to stop the action at the end of the round, earning Cruz the TKO victory at 1 second of round 5.
We also saw Hartford, Connecticut’s Mike “Machine Gun” Oliver (26-9-1, 8 KOs) succumbed to a KO by Miami’s own Mairon “El Maja” Socarras (19-0-3, 12 KOs) after just 50 seconds of round 1. Oliver, a veteran a former top ranked contender, whose last win was in 2013, was dropped twice in the short time period and refused to continue.
Proving to be a good night to be a local fighter, the excitement continued with Wilfrido “La Roca” Buelvas of Columbia (19-10, 13 KOs) vs. undefeated Livan “Machine Gun Kid” Navarro (9-0, 5 KOs) from Miami. Opening with an aggressive first round with both fighters scoring shots to the body, the second round was more of the same with some explosive action during the final seconds. A chaotic third round saw Wilfrido seeming to complain of a head butt at one point that no one else, including the referee, saw, Navarro chasing him down and earned a quick knock down, followed by another one. . Navarro came out strong in round four and sent Wilfrido again to the canvass one time before knocking him out for good in 54 seconds into the round.
Another crowd favorite, Light Heaveyweight Ulysses Diaz (6-0) from Miami scored a second round TKO over Mexico’s Fabian Valdez (3-5) in a short but brutal exhibition of pugilistic prowess. Diaz sent Valdez to the canvas in round one with a body shot, and continued to pummel his opponent until the ref called “no mas” at forty-nine seconds in to round two.
Lightweights Manuel Correa (2-0, 2 KOs) vs. Dustin Arnold (6-1, 1 KO) turned into a bloody battle between that added another victory to Correa’s undefeated record. Correa’s straight forward style proved to be too much for Arnold, who suffered some hard punches to the face but managed to hang in there for four rounds, losing the unanimous decision.
Other winners on the night included Hector Hodge in a second round KO over Jairus Gladney, another second round KO victory for Luis Melendez over Jonathan Conde and Irosvani Duvergel, who won his bout in a first round TKO against Yendriz Valdez.
By Matt Benoliel
The Fighting News Reporter
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