Gabriel Rosado put himself in the shop window for an unlikely world title shot after coming back from a beatdown to KO undefeated Bektemir Melikuziev.
In the co-main event to Jaime Munguia’s victory, “King” Rosado (26-13-1, 14 KOs) of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, scored a one-punch knockout victory against Uzbek standout Melikuziev.
Before the turnaround, Melikuziev was 7-0 with 6 KO’s.
After suffering a knockdown, Rosado landed a fight-finishing right hand at 1:21 of the third round. It was a potential KO of the Year.
“I knew I would have to dig deep,” said Gabriel Rosado. “I had more experience than he. But he’s very strong and throws heavy shots.
I was trying to time him, but he caught me with the body shot. He didn’t drop me. But I took a knee to recover. And then I got the win.”
Afterward, Munguia mentioned Rosado for a future match-up on a Golden Boy bill.
Sye Williams
Undercard:
Raul “Cougar” Curiel (10-0, 8 KOs) of Tampico, Mexico, scored a ninth-round technical knockout victory against Ferdinand “Lucky Boy” Kerobyan (14-2, 10 KOs) of North Hollywood, California, in a welterweight battle.
Curiel ended the fight by landing a barrage of punches that forced the referee to call the action at 2:10 of the aforementioned round.
Alexis “Lex” Rocha (17-1, 10 KOs) of Santa Ana, California, returned with a knockout victory at 2:12 of the second round against Jameson Bacon (26-5, 17 KOs) of Manadaue City, Philippines, in a welterweight battle.
Demetrius Banks (10-11-1, 5 KOs) of Detroit, Michigan, scored an upset unanimous decision win against Tristan Kalkreuth (8-1, 6 KOs) of Duncanville, Texas six-round cruiserweight fight.
Banks won with scores of 54-60, 55-59, and 54-60.
Manny Flores (10-0, 7 KOs) of Coachella, California, scored a knockout win against Daniel Lozano (15-11-1, 11 KOs) of Bowling Green, Florida.
The action was halted at 1:15 of the first round.
Jousce Gonzalez (11-0-1, 10 KOs) of Glendora, California, scored a third-round TKO victory against Gabriel Gutierrez (7-9, 5 KOs) of El Paso, Texas.
The contest was a scheduled six-round welterweight fight. The fight was stopped at 1:43 of the third round.