Flyweight prospect Ricardo Sandoval dropped and battered Raymond Tabugon en route to a seventh-round stoppage in a scheduled 10-round bout Wednesday at the Fantasy Springs Casino Resort in Indio, California.
Sandoval, a 21-year-old from Rialto, California, was simply too much for his Filipino foe.
In Round 2, Sandoval (18-1, 13 KOs) decked Tabugon (22-12-1, 11 KOs) with a counter left hook. Tabugon was able to beat the count and momentarily stave off Sandoval’s salvo later in the round.
In Round 6, Sandoval switched to the southpaw stance and further doled out punishment on Tabugon, who ate several clean punches to close out the round. During the break, referee Edward Hernandez Jr. checked in on the Tabugon corner, but they wanted to continue.
It was only a matter of time, however. Sandoval came out of his corner at the beginning of Round 7 winging hard right hands and left hooks that had Tabugon nearly bowled over. Referee Hernandez jumped in and promptly halted the fight.
The official time of stoppage was 1.43 of Round 7.
Also, veteran Colombian contender Oscar Negrete (19-2-2, 7 KOs) showed decorated amateur Alberto Melian (6-2, 4 KOs) who’s boss, punishing the Argentine en route to a unanimous decision win.
Melian, once ludicrously described as the Latino version of Vasiliy Lomachenko, had trouble keeping up with the rugged Negrete.
The judges scored it 98-92, 98-92, and 97-93.
Melian arguably got the better of Negrete in the first half of the fight but the tenor changed around Round 6, when Negrete began fighting more intelligently and using his lateral movement. A left hook in that round had Melian buzzed and bloody from the nose. Later, Negrete enjoyed a dominating Round 8, in which he tagged Melian with a slew of right hands.
The victory was Negrete’s first in four fights. He went 0-1-2 against Joshua Franco in their trilogy.
Also on the Golden Boy Promotions card, Sulem Urbina (12-0, 2 KOs) defeated Noemi Bosques (12-15-3, 2 KOs) by a shutout decision in a six-round women’s junior bantamweight bout.
Junior featherweights Leonardo Baez (18-2, 9 KOs) and Moises Flores (25-3, 17 KOs) went at it for eight rounds before Baez was declared the unanimous decision victor. All three judges scored it 80-72 for Baez.