Jessie Magdaleno stops Rey Perez in seven

Feb

With a possible world title bout looming, Jessie Magdaleno was not about to overlook his opponent on Saturday night. Instead, he wanted to make a statement.

Magdaleno wore down and eventually knocked out Rey Perez in the seventh round at the Celebrity Theatre in Phoenix, Ariz.

With the win, Magdaleno improves to 23-0, 17 KOs. Perez falls to 20-8, 5 KOs.

Magdaleno, who is ranked number nine as a junior featherweight by Ring Magazine, is the mandatory challenger for the WBO title, which is held by Nonito Donaire.

While the fight was contracted for 124 pounds, Perez weighed in at 131 pounds. Magdaleno stated he made the 124-pound limit, but officially weighed in at 126 3/4 pounds.

With trainer Joel Diaz again in his corner, Magdaleno had little trouble with Perez. The southpaw Magdaleno was content to work from the outside, looking to score with hooks and right hands to Perez’s body.

The taller Perez attempted to score with lead and counter right hands to Magdaleno’s head, but his punch output dropped considerably as the bout progressed.

Magdaleno let his hands go more whenever he backed Perez against the ropes, landing an array of hard punches to the head, particularly with counter right hooks to the head.

The end came near the conclusion of the seventh round. Magdaleno landed a hard left hand to Perez’s belt-line, immediately dropping him to the canvas. Referee Wes Melton counted Perez out at 2:51.

“I took my time and I knew I was going to hurt him with that punch,” said Magdaleno after the fight.

“We’re ready for a world title shot. (Nonito) Donaire, we’re ready.”

Both Donaire and Magdaleno are promoted by Top Rank.

Castro defeats Reyes

In the opening bout of the ‘Solo Boxeo Tecate’ on UniMas, featherweight Carlos Castro won a hard-fought six round unanimous decision over Rafael Reyes.

Castro goes to 15-0, 6 KOs, while Reyes drops to 6-6, 5 KOs.

From the opening bell, the fight was fought in close quarters, where both fighters scored well, particularly with right hands.

Castro controlled the first two rounds of the fight, landing the more-telling blows. Reyes came on during the middle rounds, holding his ground and scoring well with right hands to the head of Castro.

With the fight in the balance, Castro took charge during the final two rounds. There were solid exchanges between the two fighters, but it was Castro who seemed to be the busier and more-effective fighter up until the final bell.

The scores (59-55, 59-55, and 60-54 in favor of Castro) did not seem to reflect the competitiveness of the fight.

In other bouts:

– Light heavyweight Trevor McCumby (22-0, 17 KOs) stopped James Freeman (9-8, 7 KOs) at 1:38 of the second round.

– Lightweight Jesse Garcia (2-0, 2 KOs) knocked out Derick Bartlemay (0-2) at 2:07 of the second round.

Francisco A. Salazar has written for RingTV since October of 2013 and has covered boxing in Southern California and abroad since 2000. Francisco also covers boxing for the Ventura County (CA) Star newspaper, Boxingscene.com, and Knockout Nation. He can be reached by email at [email protected] or on Twitter at FSalazarBoxing