The 13th Round - Boxing for the Hardcore

2015-10-30	Nunez KOs Walters; Cermeno's Return Ends in No Contest
Pictured: lightweight knockout artist Ricardo Nunez Last night's six-bout card at the Hotel RIU in Panama City, Panama was highlighted by a devastating knockout and saw two regional champions crowned, a former two-divisional interim world champion fight to a No Contest, a current world ranked contender halt a former world ranked contender, and a prospect win a four-rounder. The scheduled eight-round lightweight bout between Ricardo "El Cientifico" Nunez and former Panamanian champ Eric Walters ended 96 seconds after it began with Walters suffering his second consecutive first round knockout defeat. Nunez landed his vaunted right as part of a multi-punch combination and Walters, who was knocked out by Eric Castro in May, sunk to the canvas. Nunez improved to 13-2 with 12 wins by knockout while Walters fell to 9-2-1 with 5 knockout wins. Manuel Largarcha, who is 0-1-1 versus Walters and has a draw with Castro, scored an upset 9-round, unanimous decision over hard-punching John Renteria to win the vacant WBA Fedecaribe super lightweight title. The scores were 86-85, 87-84, and 86-85. Largarcha raised his record to 7-3-3 (3 KOs) while Renteria slipped to 11-3-1 (9 KOs). Yaditza Perez (8-10-1, 4 KOs) outpointed previously undefeated Jesica Espinal (4-1-1, 4 KOs) to capture the vacant WBC Latino female flyweight title. Ms. Perez, who weighed in at 109 1/2, won by the scores of 77-75, 78-74, and 78-74. Ms. Espinal came in light, weighting in at the light flyweight limit of 108 pounds. Nehomar Cermeno has held both the WBA Interim bantamweight and WBA Interim super bantamweight titles. Twice he has challenged for the WBA World bantamweight title and twice he has lost by split decision. Now 35, Cermeno, who hadn't fought since winning a 12-round, split decision over previously unbeaten Oscar Escandon on August 10, 2013, has launched a comeback. Fighting at a career high of 128 pounds, Cermeno took on Freddy Pengally, who was also fighting at a career high, 126 1/2. Cermeno looked a bit heavy but performed well in the ring. Unfortunately, accidental clashes of heads left Pengally with deep cuts by both of his eyebrows. The ringside physician rightfully deemed the cuts too serious for Pengally to continue and the bout, which had been halted at 2:26 of the second round, was declared a No Contest. Cermeno's record is now 22-5-1-1 NC with 13 wins by knockout. Pengally remains at .500, 5-5-1-1 NC (2 KOs). WBA Fedecaribe super flyweight champion Gilberto Pedroza (WBA #12 at 108; WBC #31 at 115) halted veteran Edwin "La Pantera" Diaz at 1:26 of the fifth round of their scheduled eight-round, non-title flyweight bout. Pedroza, now 13-3-2 with 7 wins by knockout, has bounced back with two wins since losing to Robert Barrera a year ago. The better-than-his record-would-indicate Diaz, once ranked #4 at 105 by the WBA, was fighting for the first time since dropping a 10-round decision to Walter Tello last October. His deceiving slate now reads 16-21 with 5 KO wins. In a super featherweight bout, Fermin Castro (3-1, 1 KO) unanimously outpointed winless Joel Blanco (0-5-1) over four rounds. All of the combatants on the card are Panamanians except Ms. Espinal, who hails from Honduras, and Mr. Cermeno, who is Venezuelan but resides in Panama City.
	Article By: Ken Pollitt & Antoine Patry DesLauriers