Alberto Melian scores a career-saving win over Diego Ruiz in Buenos Aires
BUENOS AIRES, Argentina.- Alberto Melian needed to make a statement to keep his career alive. And he picked the right place to do it.
In a bloodied and explosive affair, two-time Olympian Melian improved to 11-2-1 (7 knockouts) with a win over upset-minded trialhorse Diego “Profeta” Ruiz in 10 exciting rounds at the fabled Luna Park Stadium, where some of the most illustrious chapters in the country’s boxing history took place.
Being already 33 years-old and with the added pressure of two Olympic cycles and a stint at the World Series of Boxing’s Condors team on his shoulders, Melian is not getting any younger. But he did manage to turn back time against the nails-tough Ruiz, who was competitive and even dominated at least two rounds in the early going before finding himself on the receiving end of a thunderous storm of leather that slowed him down and primed him for a progressive beating.
By the end of the fight, the general impression was that Ruiz (24-6-1, 12 KOs) was on the verge of boeing stopped.
In the end, the scorecards read 97-93 (twice) and 98-92 for Melian, who famously started his career at the deep end of the pool by taking on vastly more experienced fighters before suffering two losses and going into rebuilding mode. Ruiz was coming off an upset win over highly-regarded prospect Gamal Yafai in England back in February.
Maira Moneo (left) lands a hook on Alys Sanchez – Photo by Nelson Quispe/Boxeo de Primera
Earlier in the night, Uruguay’s Maira Moneo (13-1 (3 KOs) defeated Venezuela’s Alys Sánchez (17-9-1, 6 KOs) on a cuts-induced stoppage in nine rounds.
In the opening bout of the TyC Sports broadcast, Jonathan Hernández improved to 11-0 (7 KOs.) with a fourth-round stoppage win over Marcelo Sánchez (8-5-3, 1 KO)
Diego M. Morilla writes for The Ring since 2013. He has also written for HBO.com, ESPN.com and many other magazines, websites, newspapers and outlets since 1993. He is a full member of the Boxing Writers Association of America and an elector for the International Boxing Hall of Fame. He has won two first-place awards in the BWAA’s annual writing contest, and he is the moderator of The Ring’s Women’s Ratings Panel. He served as copy editor for the second era of The Ring en Español (2018-2020) and is currently a writer and editor for RingTV.com.
