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Zepeda and Sanchez score wins in Mexico on Saturday

Fighters Network
25
Jan
Jose “Chon” Zepeda has been on the wrong end of recent bouts that have ended abruptly. That changed for Zepeda on Saturday night as he ended matters quickly at the expense of Ammeth Diaz.
Zepeda scored a first round technical knockout over Diaz at the Palenque Fex in Mexicali, Baja California, Mexico. Zepeda improves to 24-1 (21 knockouts) while Diaz drops to 32-13 (23 KOs).
It was Zepeda’s first fight since Oct. 31, when he fought to a no-contest against Jose Alfaro. In that bout, an accidental clash of heads in the first round opened a cut beneath Zepeda’s left eye, which the ringside physician deemed too severe to continue.
He challenged for the vacant WBO lightweight title against Terry Flanagan on July 11. Zepeda suffered a dislocated left shoulder, which kept him on his stool after the second round.
Diaz had won five of his last seven bouts against decent opposition but was stopped in his last fight on July 11 by Walter Castillo.
From the opening bell, Zepeda took the fight to Diaz and could not miss with lead left hands to the head but did most of his damage with lefts to the body.
The fight abruptly ended when Zepeda landed a left to the Diaz’s stomach, dropping him to both knees. Diaz got up before the count of 10 but referee Jacinto Arambula stopped the bout at 1:49.
Zepeda may fight Ricky Burns to become the mandatory challenger to face Flanagan for his WBO title.
Sanchez defeats Gemino
Former IBF junior bantamweight titleholder Juan Carlos Sanchez won a 10-round unanimous decision over Jhon Gemino in a junior featherweight bout.
With the win, Sanchez goes to 21-4-1 (9 KOs), while Gemino falls to 12-6-1 (5 KOs).
The southpaw Sanchez did the better work in the first half of the fight. Sensing he was done on the scorecards, Gemino rallied in the eighth and ninth rounds by pressing the action and letting his hands go. However, Sanchez accumulated enough earlier rounds to get the decision win.
Scores were 97-93 twice and 96-94, in favor of Sanchez.
Francisco A. Salazar as written for RingTV since Oct. 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.

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