Junior lightweight Jonathan Lopez dropped Osvaldo Nuñez once en route to a third round knockout win Wednesday night at Arena Astros in Guadalajara, Mexico.

Lopez, who resides in Orlando, Florida, improves to 11-0, 8 knockouts.

The southpaw Lopez was the more effective fighter from the opening bell, outboxing Nuñez and connecting to the head and body with accurate punches. Lopez scored a knockdown in round two, landing a left hand to the body, followed by a right hook to the head. Nuñez did not look visibly hurt and fought on after beating the count.

After landing a series of punches to the head early in the third round,, a cut appeared above the left eye of Nuñez. The fight was stopped for the ringside physician to examine the cut, which was deemed too deep to allow the fight to continue. The fight was stopped at 1:01.

Because the cut was caused by a punch, the outcome was ruled a knockout win for Lopez, who will turn 20 later this month.

Nuñez, who resides in Morelia, Mexico, drops to 5-5. The 25-year-old has now lost his last four bouts.

Lopez was one of a handful of fighters that are promoted by Canelo Alvarez and Eddy Reynoso that appeared on the card that streamed live on ProBox TV.

In the co-feature, junior middleweight prospect Lazaro Lorenzana defeated Arturo Rios by split decision. One judge scored the bout 79-73 for Rios while the other two judges turned in more-applicable scorecards of 77-75 for Lorenzana.

Trained by Reynoso, Lorenzana was effective during the first three rounds, varying his offense and landing one punch or two-punch combinations. Rios finally let his hands go, producing solid exchanges with Lorenzana during the middle rounds.

Rios initiated exchanges and found success during the last two-three rounds of the fight. Lorenzana backed up against the ropes, decreasing the amount of punches he threw. Rios caught Lorenzana’s attention at the end of the seventh round, connecting a straight right hand to the head. Lorenzana was able to bank enough rounds early on in the fight to edge out the win over Rios, who drops to 4-3-1, 1 KO.

The 24-year-old Lorenzana was coming off a win over gatekeeper Cameron Krael in his hometown of San Diego on March 4.

In the undercard, junior featherweight Oscar Hernandez of Guadalajara improved to 5-1, 2 KOs, defeating Mexico City’s Joseph Morales (2-2-1, 1 KO) by split decision. One judge scored the bout 58-56 for Morales, while the other two judges scored the bout 59-55 and 58-56 for Hernandez.

In the opening bout of the ProBox TV stream, Cesar Ortiz, another fighter who resides in Guadalajara, defeated Antonio Gonzalez (3-6, 1 KO) of Mexico City by unanimous decision. All three judges scored the bout 60-54 in favor of Ortiz, who improves to 6-0, 5 KOs.

Francisco A. Salazar has written for The Ring since October 2013 and has covered boxing in Southern California and abroad since 2000. Francisco also covers boxing for the Ventura County (California) Star newspaper. He can be reached at [email protected]

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