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Lock crushes Cruz on Mayweather-Marquez undercard

Fighters Network
19
Sep

LAS VEGAS — In the opening bout of the HBO Pay-Per-View broadcast Saturday, featherweight spoiler Cornelius Lock put Orlando Cruz down once in the opening round before finishing the Puerto Rican Olympian with a crunching right hook in the fifth round of their scheduled 10-round bout.

It was a must-win fight for Lock (19-4-1, 12 KOs), who is coming off a 10-round decision loss to Antonio Escalante in June.

“I felt good but I felt tight,” Lock, a Detroit native who now makes his home in Las Vegas, said after the fight. “I felt like he wasn't at my level. I was catching him with my left and I was thinking I was throwing the hook long so I shortened it up a bit and I caught him and hurt him and I ended it.”

Cruz was gutsy throughout the bout and landed his share of quality punches, such as the right hook, but the southpaw couldn't recover from Lock's big right hook.



“It was a good shot,” said Cruz of San Juan. “Congratulations to Cornelius.”

Former amateur star Erislandy Lara (8-0, 5 KOs) of Miami, Fla., by way of Guantanamo, Cuba, continued his rise up the junior middleweight ladder with a one-round one-punch (to the body) KO of Jose Verala (23-7, 16 KOs) of Los Angeles by way of Nicaragua.

Welterweight fringe contender Said Ouali (26-3, 17 KOs) of Las Vegas stopped Franciso Rios (17-11, 12 KOs) of Phoenix, Ariz., in the second round after dropping the journeyman twice in the opening round.

Junior welterweight prospect Jessie Vargas (6-0, 3 KOs) of Las Vegas scored a unanimous six-round decision over Raul Tovar (6-2, 2 KOs) of Mission, Tex.

Super middleweight prospect Dion Savage (6-0, 4 KOs) of Flint, Mich., stopped Loren Myers (7-7, 2 KOs) of Fresno, Calif., 22 seconds into the fourth round.

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