WBO junior welterweight champion Ricardo Torres rallied late against American challenger Kendall Holt in Colombia, scoring an 11th round TKO to improve to 32-1 with his 28th knockout.
Torres said he felt he was down two or three points heading into the championship rounds, and that he would have to score a knockout to hold onto his title. With a blistering attack, he put Holt (22-2) down with a left hook to the chin, and with another explosive flurry, referee Yino Rodriguez stepped in to prevent further punishment, as Torres was hitting Holt at will at that point.
Torres did credit his challenger for a very tough fight. "He was a tough opposition, and his strength and stamina really afected me."
It's the type of win Torres needed, as his only really memorable performance thus far was his lone career loss, against Miguel Cotto. Holt is a good boxer and has some power, so Torres outlasting him should move him up substantially in the 140-pound rankings.
Russian super middleweight prospect Victor "The Destroyer" Oganov faced his first good opponent on Saturday night on Showtime -- and he was knocked out.
Fulgencio Zuniga (20-2-1, 17 KO) added to a three-fight win streak since losing to Kelly Pavlik in 2005 with a rather big upset of Oganov, who came into the fight 26-0 with a knockout in every fight. Oganov had made his name with vicious power, but Zuniga put him down for good at 1:25 of the ninth round to capture the vacant IBO super middleweight title.
Oganov will now have to prove himself all over again. When you get knocked out against your first opponent of any worth, it's tough to rebound. We'll see if he's worth his salt now, or if he's just another of 1,000,000 boxers that have come and gone in the blink of an eye.