Mexico victories for current and former champs

Miguel Vasquez retained his IBF lightweight title for the third time last night as he dominated out-of-depth challenger Ameth Diaz at the Coliseo Olimpico de la UG in Guadalajara, Mexico.

‘Titere’ or ‘The Puppet’ extended his unbeaten run, which stretches back to a 2008 loss to Saul Alvarez, to seven bouts with an almost shut-out points win of 120-107, 120-107 and 119-108 as the champion improved to 30-3, with 13 KO’s.

Panamanian Diaz, 28, dropped his eleventh loss to the 25 year-old Vasquez and was clearly not on the same level as the title holder, who has a target on his back with former WBA belt holder Brandon Rios hoping to challenge for a second title after being stripped on the scales.

In Baja California, former WBO super-bantamweight champion Daniel Ponce De Leon scored his first win since December 2010 with a sixth round stoppage win over Omar ‘Dinamita’ Estrella to pick up the vacant WBC USNBC featherweight title.

The win represented 31 year-old De Leon’s 42^nd triumph in 46 contests, with his only career losses coming against current or recent world champions Celestino Caballero, Juan Manuel Lopez, Adrien Broner and Yuriorkis Gamboa.