On Friday, Februrary 3, 2017, Joshua Franco (9-0, 5 KOs) scored a third-round KO victory against Victor Pasillas (8-7-2, 5 KOs) in the main event of Golden Boy Boxing‘s LA Fight Club at the Belasco Theater in Downtown, Los Angeles.
The scheduled eight-round Super Flyweight fight headlined a three-fight telecast on Estrella TV.
Franco, a 21-year-old native of San Antonio, Texas, box beautifully from the outside for the first two rounds against Pasillas, a 28-year-old of Mexico.
Franco used his jab intelligently to establish and maintain distance, often using it to blind Pasillas’s face before landing right uppercuts or straight right hands.
In Round 3, a short hook wobbled Pasillas, which Franco followed with a quick combination that quickly ended the fight, though it appeared that Pasillas might have been able to continue.
“I was definitely expecting a tougher fight,” said Franco.
“I had watched a lot of his fights online, and I expected the knockout later in the fight,” said Franco.
“I felt like I could have continued to fight,” said Pasillas. “It’s been two years since I’ve been in the ring, so this was the first step to rebuilding my career.”
In tonight’s co-main event, Jonathan “Thunder” Navarro (8-0, 5 KOs) scored a unanimous decision victory Angel Rodriguez (5-7-3, 4 KOs) in a Super Lightweight fight.
Though Navarro was stronger and pressed the action throughout the fight, he revealed serious defensive flaws against Rodriguez, often taking hard, clean shots in the exchange.
“This fight shows that I can rumble with tough opponents,” said Navarro. “My opponent fought against Diego Magdaleno and Adrien Broner, so I knew he had to be tough, and he was.”
Hector Tanajara was originally scheduled to fight in the co-main vent, but his opponent was unable to make weight.
In the first televised fight, Ryan Garcia (8-0, 7 KOs) scored a second-round TKO victory against Devon Jones (2-2-0, 1 KO).
“You heard the crowd tonight, I think they enjoyed the fight,” said Garcia.
“I give myself a B- for my performance since I got cobbled in my head a couple of times. I had to adjust because I didn’t know that my opponent was a southpaw. But we got the knockout and that’s what makes champions.”
All photos by Jose Saucedo/RBRBoxing
