Bantamweight Andres “Loquillo” Teran scored a surprise sixth-round TKO over Floyd “Cashflow” Diaz to headline the five-fight preliminary portion of tonight’s Zuffa Boxing 8 event, live on Paramount+ from the Cosmopolitan of Las Vegas.
Diaz, 14-1 (3 KOs), used his superior boxing skills to counter effectively and fend off the aggressive approach of Teran, 19-2 (14 KOs), for most of the first five rounds, but got caught by a hard right-hand in the sixth that took his legs away instantly.
Another big right hand that staggered Diaz again a minute later provoked referee Thomas Taylor to step in and stop it at 1:29 of the round.
23-year-old Diaz of Las Vegas was winning by scores of 50-45 on all three cards at the time of the surprise stoppage for 26-year-old Teran, of St. Petersburg, Florida via Mexico.
It was a way more difficult fight than I had expected, but I kept going and moving forward and ended up getting the win,” said Teran through a translator, post-fight. “He was a very versatile fighter who moves around a lot, so I had to listen to my corner’s instructions because it was something I really wasn’t expecting from this fighter (Diaz).”
Teran wept in his corner with joy after achieving the shock victory.
Sharp-shooting undefeated lightweight Tony “The Phantom” Hirsch Jnr continued his positive forward momentum by knocking out Jaybrio “The Hitman” Pe Benito with a single right hand in round three.
Pe Benito, 7-1 (5 KOs), of Las Vegas via Hawaii, attempted to come forward and pressure his man, but Oakland, California’s Hirsch Jnr, 9-0-2 (5 KOs), found the answer by stepping in with a big right hand that hurt Pe Benito in the second and then doing it again in round three to dump Pe Benito to the canvas, face-first.
Referee Tony Weeks didn’t bother to count and awarded the knockout to Hirsch Jnr at 2:12.
This was Hirsch Jnr’s second consecutive impressive victory on Zuffa Boxing airwaves, as he was coming off an upset majority eight-round decision victory over highly touted prospect Robert Merriweather at Zuffa 5 in April of this year.
Adding insult to injury, Pe Benito reportedly came in four pounds overweight and gave up 25% of his purse
Fan-friendly welterweight Damoni Cato-Cain won a unanimous eight-round decision over Vernon “Sub-Zero” Brown.
37-year-old southpaw Brown, 14-3-1 (10 KOs), tried repeatedly to land looping left-hand haymakers, but ate a lot of punches from Oakland, California’s 28-year-old Cato-Cain, 10-1-2 (7 KOs), while waiting for his opportunities.
Fighting behind an effective jab, Cato-Cain kept enough composure to avoid Brown’s wild, but potentially fight-ending, attacks. Cato-Cain was able to take the punches Brown did land well.
Chicago’s Brown was having just his second fight in four years. The scores were 78-74, 78-74 and 79-73.
Super featherweight Adrian Serrano stayed undefeated by winning a closely fought, all-action six-round unanimous decision over Brady Ochoa.
The scrappy pair, Serrano, 7-0-2 (3 KOs), and Ochoa, 9-1-1 (2 KOs), fought to a majority six-round draw on the Zuffa Boxing 4 event in March of this year. In tonight’s rematch, Salinas, California’s Serrano was able to slow the quicker Las Vegas native Ochoa with a focused attack downstairs early that allowed him to slightly outwork Ochoa in the judges’ eyes as the rounds progressed.
The scores were a wide 59-55, 59-55 and 58-56, all for Serrano, but the action appeared closer than the final tallies.
To open the prelim broadcast, 6′ 7″ Uzbekistani prospect Jakhongir Zokirov won a battle between two undefeated heavyweight southpaws, stopping Zachary Spiller in two rounds.
23-year-old Zokirov, 2-0 (2 KOs), dropped Spiller with a clubbing left hand to the side of the head with 10 seconds left in the first round and then finished the job in the second with an extended barrage of punches in Spiller’s corner, prompting referee Tony Weeks to wave it off at 2:02. Houston’s Spiller falls to 5-1 (4 KOs).
