A potential mega-fight against Amanda Serrano loomed in the horizon for WBA featherweight titlist Erika Cruz Hernandez if she managed to defeat her compatriot and former Mexican amateur teammate Melissa Esquivel in this Friday, Nov. 27 card at the International Convention Center in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico, and Cruz Hernandez managed to make it even more possible with an emphatic win over 10 spirited rounds.

Cruz Hernandez, a native of Mexico City rated No. 3 by The Ring prior to the fight, improved to 14-1 (3 knockouts) with a very clear win over Culiacan’s Melissa Esquivel in her debut under the Matchroom Boxing promotional banner, in a card broadcasted by DAZN, even though the scorecards (or at least one of them) told a somewhat different story.

The fight started with an explosive and relentless pace, and remained so during its entirety. Esquivel, when given the opportunity and the space, proved to be a fine technical boxer with lots of courage, but Cruz was just overwhelming in both volume and power with both hands, with her southpaw stance complicating things even further for Esquivel, her former teammate and sparring partner in the Mexican amateur system.

The scorecards, as it is already an unfortunate custom with the infamous WBA, were all over the place.

One judge unbelievably had it 97-93 for Esquivel, while the other scorecards gave Cruz Hernandez the win by margins of 97-93 and 98-92. The Ring had it 98-92 for the winner.

Erika Cruz Hernandez – Photo courtesy of Matchroom Boxing

“I am happy to retain my title. The decision was fair, she landed great punches but the most effective punches were mine,” said Cruz Hernandez. “In the future, I would like to fight for the featherweight titles that Amanda Serrano has. Right now they are talking about Marcela Acuña, Nina Meinke, Sara Mahfoud, but in the long term I want to face Serrano.”

Cruz still follows up with her head, a tactic that gave her problems in her title-winning effort against Canada’s Jelena Mrdjenovich, in a fight that was stopped after seven rounds due to the defending champion’s severe facial lacerations. Many people credited the majority of those injuries to Cruz’s use of her head as an extra weapon.

In general, Cruz simply dragged Esquivel (12-2-1, 4 KO) into her game plan, trading in close quarters and banging downstairs and upstairs in every combination. Esquivel failed to adjust to Cruz’s implacable pace, and the result was already written as the final bell sounded.

In the co-main event of a very fast-paced undercard with almost no downtime between bouts, Tijuana’s Angel Fierro improved to 19-1-1 (15 KO) with an emphatic fourth-round stoppage win over Cristian “Fat Cat” Bielma in a scheduled 10-rounder in the lightweight division.

After two slow initial rounds, Fierro brought on the heat, and Bielma (18-4-1, 7 KO) was overpowered during the entire third round. But midway through the fourth, Fierro landed a demolishing overhand right to the top of the head that literally spun Bielma around recoiling in pain and rendered him defenseless showing his back to his foe. Referee Miguel Canul had no choice but to stop the contest and hold Bielma upright to call the stoppage at the 2.08 mark.

Fierro, trained by Erik Morales, sees himself one year away from a title bout.

“I am very happy to deliver an exciting victory for my people,” said Fierro. “I want to fight through 2022 and earn my opportunity to face (WBC lightweight beltholder) Devin Haney for the title.”

His trainer was also enthusiastic about Fierro’s prospects.

“He is aggressive, people love him and he always delivers a great show,” said Morales, a fan favorite himself in his heyday, about his young charge. “The truth is that we have to work hard, stay in the gym and be ready for the best. I love it when a fighter has drams and desire to do great things in the ring.”

Earlier, Aaron “Superman” Silva scored a unanimous decision win over Raul “Money” Solomon in an eight-round bout.

Both fighters entered the ring with an identical record of 8-0, with 8 stoppage wins for Salomon and 6 for Silva. In the tiebreaker, Solomon fell short and failed to impose his power on a very active opponent who launched a very steady attack since the very beginning.

Silva sent Solomon down in a flash knockdown in the third round to finally earn scorecards of 77-75,78-73 and 77-74 in one of the most entertaining fights of the night.

“The opponent was tough. If my hooks don’t work I start using my uppercuts, and in the last two rounds I used them. The spirit of Julio Cesar Chavez helped me,” said an exultant Silva, crediting his idol for the inspiration behind his win.

Gabriel Gollaz Valenzuela (left) lands a hook on Juan Jimenez – Photo courtesy of Matchroom Boxing

Previously, Gabriel Gollaz Valenzuela improved to 25-2-1 (15 KO) with a demolishing first-round stoppage over an overmatched Juan Jimenez (30-21-3 30 KO) in a junior welterweight clash scheduled for eight rounds. A career featherweight fighting at his heaviest weight ever (138 pounds), Jimenez was outpunched and outmuscled from the very start, and after two minutes of a heavy two-fisted attack he simply had enough. Referee Jesus Ruiz waved off the proceedings just as Jimenez’s round was ready to enter the ring to stop the fight.

“I am campaigning to become a world champ next year,” said Valenzuela, also part of the Reynoso stable.

In the first fight of the telecast, Christian “Niñote” Gomez stopped Javier Franco in three rounds of a scheduled eight-rounder in the welterweight division.

After two slow initial rounds, Gomez (22-2-1, 19 KOs) turned it up a notch and landed a barrage of punches on Franco as he was retreating to the ropes. Franco (36-21-6, 21 KOs) went down and sprang back up immediately complaining about pain in his left shoulder, in the place where a solid right hand by Gomez had landed when Franco was attempting to roll away from the punch. Franco was unable to lift his left arm at the request of the referee and the bout was stopped at 1:08 minutes of the the third round.

“My opponent couldn’t take the punch, we worked hard for this victory,” said Gomez in his post-fight interview. “All we need to do is continue working hard.”

“We have more champions coming out from Mexico but we want more,” said Eddy Reynoso, representing Canelo Promotions in an interview with Beto Durand and Gabe Rosado during the broadcast. “This is a way of doing it and to continue growing towards that goal. We are happy that a company like DAZN and Matchroom come here and showcase these talents.”