After losing to Ricardo Alvarez in a bout many felt he won, Rod Salka (19-3, 3 KOs) made his return with a surprise unanimous decision victory over amateur standout Alexei Collado (18-1, 16 KOs) in a ten-round Lightweight fight at the Convention Center in Monroeville, Pennsylvania. The fight was the main event of a card presented by Iron Mike Productions and Showtime Sports.
In the first round, Collado started the fight with awkwardly-thrown left hooks and wide right hands to Salka’s gloves.
In the pre-fight interview, Collado stated that the left hook would be an important part of the game plan for tonight’s fight. Collado threw several of them in the first two rounds.
In the third round, however, Collado’s wide punches finally caught up to him as he was seriously hurt by a body shot, which was later followed by a short left hook on the inside that knocked him down.
In the fourth round, Collado was cut above his right eye as he was continually the victim of Salka’s counterpunches. By the middle of the fight, Salka’s boxing clinic was in full effect.
Salka countered Collado with right hands and left hooks, calmly outboxing Collado into the tenth and final round.
In the co-main event, two-time Olympian Felix Diaz (15-0, 8 KOs) scored an eight-round split decision victory over Emmanuel Lartey (15-2-1, 17KOs)
In a fight that matched two southpaw fighters, Diaz began the fight aggressively, pushing the action for the first few rounds. After being staggered in he the third round, however, Diaz relaxed his offense and Lartey was allowed to box a bit more.
Lartey, however, did not do enough, according to the judge’s scorecards even if Diaz smothered much of his offense in the later rounds.
Two judges scored the bout 77-75 for Diaz while a third judge scored the bout 77-75 for Lartey.
The bout marked Diaz’s first with new trainer Robert Garcia of the Robert Garcia Boxing Academy in Oxnard, California.
Diaz has only worked with Garcia for a short time, but nonetheless demonstrated that he still needs a lot of work to live up to the amateur experience that weighs on his reputation.
In the first televised bout, Samuel Vasquez (14-0, 10 Kos) knocked out Juan Rodriguez Jr. (11-1, 5 KOs) in the first round of a scheduled eight-round Welterweight fight.
Rodriguez was knocked down three times before the fight was stopped, the first of which was caused by a counter right hook and straight left hand by the southpaw Vasquez.
Rodriguez did his best to move around and avoid getting knocked out, but was once again pushed against the ropes where he was knocked down again by a straight left to the body.
Rodriguez made it to his feet before the end of the eight-count, was barely responsive to the referee’s questions, but was still allowed to continue.
Rodriguez, however, was knocked down a third time by a barrage of punches before the fight was finally stopped.
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Photos by Stephanie Trapp/Showtime
