Luis Nunez is making the most of his opportunities.
The 22-year-old Dominican prospect, fighting in the main event on “ShoBox: The New Generation” for a second straight time, knocked out game, but overmatched Carlos Arrieta on Friday at Caribe Royale Resort in Orlando, Florida.
Nunez (16-0, 12 KOs) now has back-to-back victories over previously unbeaten opponents on national TV in the U.S.
It looked as if Arrieta (14-1, 8 KOs) was going to give Nunez problems early, as he fought at a fast pace and landed some eye-catching punches. His body work was particularly effective.
However, Nunez, never hurt by anything Arrieta threw, picked up his own work rate and landed the bigger, more damaging punches to take control of the fight and wear his Puerto Rican opponent down in the scheduled 10-round junior lightweight bout.
Nunez seemed to be cruising to a one-sided decision when, about a minute into the final round, he landed a big counter right hand that didn’t put Arrieta down but hurt him badly.
And Nunez took advantage, unleashing a flurry of unanswered punches with Arrieta’s back against the ropes that prompted referee Frank Gentile to step in and save the losing fighter from further punishment.
The official time of the stoppage was 1:41 of the 10th round.
Nunez, who trains at his manager’s gym in Reading, Pennsylvania, defeated a reluctant Jayvon Garnett by an impressive shutout 10-round decision in his United States debut this past September.
Two dominating performances in a row on a high-profile stage suggests that we’re going to see a lot more of him.
In preliminary bouts, also featuring unbeaten prospects, relentless Otar Eranosyan (11-0, 6 KOs) put Starling Castillo (16-1, 12 KOs) down twice in the opening round and went on to win a unanimous decision in an eight-round lightweight bout.
Eranosyan, from the country of Georgia, maintained suffocating pressure on his Dominican counterpart, never giving the taller Castillo room to land many effective punches.
“Pitbull” put Castillo down with an overhand left midway through the opening round and again with a counter right a few seconds before the bell.
The scores were 79-71, 80-70 and 80-70.
And William Foster III (14-0, 9 KOs) defeated Edwin De Los Santos (13-1, 12 KOs) by a split decision in an eight-round 130-pound bout.
De Los Santos, a slugger fighting outside his native Dominican Republic for the first time, came out aggressively in the first round and had some success but seemed to fade shortly thereafter.
Meanwhile, Foster, from New Haven, Connecticut, withstood the early storm and maintained a busy pace to win the decision.
Two judges scored it for Foster 77-74, five rounds to three. The third somehow had it by the same score for De Los Santos, who lost a point because of a foul in Round 4.