The comeback continues for bantamweight Manny Flores, who stopped Victor Olivo in the first round with a body shot in Thursday’s main event at Fantasy Springs Resort Casino in Indio, California.
Flores, 19-1 (15 KOs), a 26-year-old fighter from Coachella, California, landed a right hook to the body that sent Olivo, 21-5-1 (9 KOs), to the canvas. Olivo was unable to beat the count administered by referee Thomas Taylor.
The stoppage came at 1:50 in the first.
Flores is now on a four-fight knockout streak since suffering his only career defeat, to Walter Santibanes in June 2023. His previous three knockouts occurred in the second round.
In the co-feature, undefeated featherweight Jose Sanchez, 14-0 (8 KOs), of Cathedral City, California, knocked out Mexico’s Edwin Palomares, 18-6-3 (9 KOs), in the eighth round of an action-packed fight. The stoppage came at 53 seconds of the round.
Sanchez, 24, started slow as the 28-year-old Palomares was the busier fighter early on, outworking and outlanding his opponent through two rounds. By the middle rounds, Sanchez began to throw more punches, but Palomares kept the fight at close range, smothering Sanchez’s attempts to generate power. The pro-Sanchez crowd grew quiet as their man struggled to find his rhythm.
However, after a strong fifth round, Sanchez’s body work started to take effect, with Palomares visibly slowing down and favoring his body. In the seventh, Sanchez began walking Palomares down, forcing him to box on the back foot.
In the eighth, Palomares pushed forward, sensing the fight could be close, but Sanchez caught him in the corner with a big right hand to the chin, followed by a barrage of punches, sending Palomares into the ropes and down. Palomares couldn’t beat the count and remained down before eventually getting to his feet under his own power.
Junior middleweight Grant Flores, 7-0 (5 KOs), the younger cousin of Manny Flores, earned a six-round unanimous decision over Luis Ramos, 7-5-1 (7 KOs), of Trujillo Alto, Puerto Rico. The judges scored the bout 60-53, 60-53, and 59-54, all in favor of Flores.
The fight marked the second time Flores went the distance, with both instances occurring in six-round fights. Flores dropped Ramos with a left hook to the body in the fifth round.
Lightweight Daniel “Junebug” Garcia, now 10-0 (8 KOs), of Westminster, Colorado, knocked out Jorge Villegas, 14-4 (13 KOs), of Oxnard, California, in the second round of a scheduled six-round bout. Garcia dropped Villegas with a left hook to the body, causing him to spit out his mouthpiece, though Villegas rose at the count of nine. Garcia then dropped him again with a flurry of punches while Villegas was on the ropes, sending him to his knee. The stoppage came at 2:15 of the second round.
Cayden Griffiths, an 18-year-old junior welterweight from Lake Havasu City, Arizona, moved to 2-0 (2 KOs) after knocking out Markus Bowes, 2-7 (2 KOs), of Roxboro, North Carolina, in the second round. A left hook started the action, but it was a right hand that produced a delayed reaction as Bowes remained standing awkwardly, prompting referee David Soliven to stop the bout at 52 seconds of Round 2.
In the opening bout, 6ft lightweight Jonathan Canas (6-0, 2 KOs), of Santa Ana, California, won a six-round unanimous decision over Pedro Cruz (3-6, 2 KOs), of San Jose, California. All three judges scored the fight 60-54 for Canas. During the telecast, it was noted that Canas sparred with former unified titleholder Jose Ramirez and Oscar Duarte in preparation for this bout. Cruz suffered a cut from a punch in the fourth round, with two head clashes also occurring during the fight.