SAN ANTONIO — Rashidi Ellis lived up to his “Speedy” nickname, knocking out late replacement opponent Jose Marrufo in the first round of their junior middleweight fight at The Alamodome.

Ellis (24-0, 15 knockouts) of Lynn, Mass. dropped the overmatched Marrufo (13-11-2, 1 KO) twice before the fight was stopped at the 2:18 mark. Marrufo of Phoenix, Ariz. came in on two days notice to replace Alberto Palmetta, who made the trip to Texas but withdrew with a back injury.

The two fighters were an entire weight division apart at Friday’s weigh-in, with Marrufo weighing in under the welterweight limit while Ellis weighed in just under the junior middleweight limit.

SPEEDY RASHIDI! 😳@RashidiEllis earns a fast 1st round TKO win over Marrufo 👊@BCampbell @morningkombat #MagsayoVargas prelims are LIVE: https://t.co/l3JriFNoE1 pic.twitter.com/xYf3h3sFNP

— SHOWTIME Boxing (@ShowtimeBoxing) July 9, 2022

Ellis, who was making his debut with Premier Boxing Champions, was fighting for the first time in nearly two years.

The Ellis-Marrufo fight kicked off the portion of the Mark Magsayo-Rey Vargas card which aired on the Showtime Sports YouTube channel, prior to the main broadcast.

Also on the YouTube portion, local favorite Ramon Cardenas (21-1, 10 KOs) earned the biggest win of his career, outpointing Florida based Venezuelan Michell Banquez (20-2, 14 KOs) in a ten-round bantamweight bout.

Two judges scored the bout 97-93, while the third had it 96-94, all for Cardenas, a San Antonio native.

Earlier in the card, Albert Gonzalez (3-0, 1 KO) of Perris, Calif. used his sharper counterpunching and boxing skills to outpoint the aggressive Alberto Alvarez (4-1, 3 KOs) of Simi Valley, Calif. in a four-round junior featherweight bout by the scores of 40-36 on all three cards.

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