On the eve of Mexican Independence Day, it was South African fighter Simphiwe Nongqayi who stole the show on an action-packed night of fights from south of the border.

Nongqayi (16-0, 6 KO) captured the vacant IBF junior bantamweight title in a dominant victory over Mexican warrior and hero Jorge Arce, winning on official scores of 117-112, 117-111 and 116-112. Bad Left Hook scored the bout 118-110 for Nongqayi.

For the 30-year old Arce, the question rises again. Was this it for the warrior? Arce (52-6-1, 40 KO) looked slow, small, and just plain shot against the clever Nongqayi, who barely let Arce into the fight at all, showing an excellent ability to control range on the lunging, shorter Mexican. To put it simply, Nongqayi owned the ring en route to vanquishing his second Arce brother in a row. Nongqayi beat Jorge's younger brother, Fernando, in February, which earned him a shot at the title Vic Darchinyan held. Darchinyan vacated the title after his loss to Joseph Agbeko at 118 pounds, at which time the IBF had told him he must fight Nongqayi next. Darchinyan also destroyed Arce earlier this year.

I'm not saying I think he will quit now, but I do believe Jorge Arce probably should so long as he's got his finances in order. Prior to this fight, he'd badly lost his last two bouts against top-level foes (Darchinyan and Cristian Mijares). He reeled off five straight wins between those two losses, but one was highly questionable (Devid Lookmahanak) and the other four were against guys that just weren't on his level.

His last two fights can't even really be called exciting, which was always his calling card. No, he was never a great talent, but he had a truckload of heart and was never afraid to get hit if that's what he had to do. Both Darchinyan and Nongqayi just embarrassed him and won the bouts going away.

Nongqayi is now stuck in that tough spot of being a titlist with good skills but absolutely no name anywhere besides South Africa, which is going to make it hard for him to find good opponents unless a major promoter really gets behind him. Both the Arce brothers probably thought they'd beat this guy, and neither of them came particularly close.

• In the main event from Puebla, Edgar Sosa knocked out Omar Soto in the sixth round to make a successful tenth defense of his WBC junior flyweight strap
• On Puebla's undercard, Saul Alvarez took out Carlos Herrera in the first round to improve to 29-0-1, and Carlos Zarate Jr. made his pro debut with a knockout of Miguel Angel Tejeda at 1:02 of the first round. Tejeda was carried out on a stretcher after the right hook that finished the fight, and fitted with a neck brace.
• On the Cancun undercard, Humberto Soto bombed out a clearly overmatched Aristides Perez to retain his 130-pound title and possibly set up a 135-pound title fight with unbeaten slugger Edwin Valero on the Cotto-Pacquiao undercard, at least if Bob Arum can get his way and both fighters actually want that as much as they claim they do. I maintain my doubts, and Soto proved nothing new with this win, but he really knocked the stuffing out of Perez, ending it in the second round. Perez did a semi-Zab Judah chicken dance before the referee mercifully called it off.
• Also in Cancun: Ulises Solis scored two knockdowns and benefited from one on himself not being called, but only slightly so as he pretty well pummeled Panamanian Dirceu Cabarca over eight rounds, winning 80-71 on every card, as well as Bad Left Hook's. Off TV, Samuel Peter finished Ronald Bellamy in the second round to continue his trip down Comeback Road. Results are not yet in for Omar Chavez-Jessie Davis.

How about a little bonus coverage? Thanks to Televisa working out a deal with Suljos.TV, tonight's card from Puebla, Mexico will be available live and for free online. Just click that link and you'll be magically whisked away at 12:45 ET.

So, obviously, no guarantees on how it works, but the stream is completely legal. There's also a card on Azteca America at 11pm ET tonight, and we're going to do our best to cover that one, too. It's a Tuesday night, I'm bored, and there are fights out there. Let's talk about 'em.

The lineups:

Televisa via Suljos.TV, 11 ET

WBC Junior Flyweight Title
Edgar Sosa (36-5, 20 KO) v. Omar Soto (14-3-1, 6 KO)

Sosa is making the 10th defense of his title against Puerto Rican Soto, who the Sosa camp has tried to sell in interviews as being a tough opponent, but really this should be a gimme for the titleholder. A Soto win here would be the leading candidate for 2009's biggest upset.

Welterweights, 10 Rounds
Saul Alvarez (28-0-1, 21 KO) v. Carlos Herrera (21-1, 8 KO)

Alvarez was recently dissed by Julio Cesar Chavez Jr., who said he wasn't good enough to fight him. That's a complete crock, considering Chavez is still wasting his time fighting Jason LeHoullier at 41 fights into his career, which is not a shot at LeHoullier, really, but the guy's a club fighter, and everyone knows it. Alvarez is a really solid prospect. If he and JCC Jr. did get it on, I'd take Alvarez without thinking twice. Herrera is an Argentinian fighter, and this is his first trip outside of his home country. He doesn't have the KO record that a lot of the more notable Argentinian exports do, but Sergio Martinez is probably the best fighter of all them and he's no banger, so we'll see what he's got.

Azteca America, 11 PM ET

Vacant IBF Junior Bantamweight Title
Jorge Arce (52-5-1, 40 KO) v. Simphiwe Nongqayi (15-0, 6 KO)

Arce will be looking not only to grab another alphabet title, but to exact a little revenge. Nongqayi beat Jorge's little brother, Fernando Arce, in his last fight, a clear decision victory on the road in Mexico. The South African returns to the country to try to take out big brother now, with the win over Fernando earning Nongqayi a shot at Vic Darchinyan's IBF 115-pound title. Darchinyan chose to vacate instead of fight Nongqayi, and now we end up with this matchup, which isn't too bad at all. Almost every Arce fight is exciting. They do have one common opponent, the dreaded Julio Ler (who made for the last boring Arce fight). Both won decisions.

WBC Junior Lightweight Title
Humberto Soto (48-7-2, 31 KO) v. Aristides Perez (15-0-1, 8 KO)

A keep-warm fight for Soto, at least on paper. He's been discussed as an opponent for lightweight titleholder Edwin Valero in November. He last fought on the Hatton-Pacquiao undercard, stopping Benoit Gaudet in the ninth round.

Junior Bantamweights, 10 Rounds
Ulises Solis (28-2-2, 20 KO) v. Dirceu Cabarca (7-3, 3 KO)

Total bounce-back fight for Solis, the former 108-pound titlist and guy I felt at the time was most likely to be the man to beat Ivan Calderon. He lost a war against Brian Viloria in an April upset, and now he looks to get back on track. He won't be fighting at his usual weight, but the skill level should make that irrelevant.

Heavyweights, 8 Rounds
Samuel Peter (31-3, 24 KO) v. Ronald Bellamy (14-9-4, 9 KO)

Peter takes his second straight soft touch as Top Rank tries to get hm back to the big-punching monster he was before Vitali Klitschko beat the living crap out of him, which led to a loss to Eddie Chambers on ESPN2 earlier this year. He knocked out Marcus McGee in three his last time out, and Bellamy has been stopped a total of six times in his career. What do you think happens?

Welterweights, 6 Rounds
Omar Chavez (17-0-1, 13 KO) v. Jessie Davis (11-14, 8 KO)

The "other" Chavez kid is Omar, Julio Cesar's nephew and Julio Cesar Jr.'s cousin. Chavez's last fight was against Marco Antonio Nazareth, and the bout resulted in Nazareth's tragic death. Hopefully Omar can put that behind him and fight on, because those things, sad as it is, do happen. It'd be easy to say that Omar is on his cousin's career path, but he's still just 19 years old and guys like Davis are absolutely acceptable opponents at that point. Hopefully he won't toil in the middle tier as long as Jr. has.