Rendall Munroe knocks out Victor Terrazas, earns a title shot

In the Midlands, super bantamweight Rendall Munroe came from behind to score a ninth round TKO victory over Mexican Victor Terrazas to become the new mandatory challenger for the title held by Toshiaki Nishioka.

In the first several rounds, Terrazas was able to outquick and somewhat outwork the boxing binman, working from the outside to take rounds with a slightly more accurate jab and a slightly higher workrate.  It was a style uncharacteristic of Munroe, allowing Terrazas to stay on the outside and lure Munroe into a jabbing contest.  However, as the rounds went on, Munroe started to vary his attack and realized that he was able to nail Terrazas to the body.  Terrazas still narrowly claimed the third and fourth rounds, but Munroe was showing signs of life.

In round 5, something finally clicked.  The two started to really brawl, and Munroe imposed his physicality on "Vikingo", realizing he could get on the inside just by being the stronger, larger man.  For rounds five and six, it was an exciting brawl with lots of exchanges, and both fighters were able to find the other effectively.

Munroe's body attack finally caught up with Terrazas in the seventh round.  From that point on, Munroe found success by pushing Terrazas back into the ropes, staying inside, and firing off far more punches than the Mexican, connecting with regularity to the body, and sneaking in quite a number of uppercuts.  

By the eighth round, Terrazas was completely gassed.  For nearly the entire round, Munroe had Terrazas up against the ropes, firing away and receiving no damage in return.  Finally, Munroe was continuing the feat in the ninth round, when a combination of exhaustion and a big left hook to the kidney forced Terrazas to his knees.  While Terrazas was able to get to his feet, he was in no shape to continue and the referee waved off the fight.

After the fight, Frank Maloney said he will try to win the purse bid for the fight between Munroe and Nishioka.  Tonight, Munroe proved that he is indeed world class, and that he has extraordinary determination.  However, he still may have problems with Nishioka's speed and southpaw stance, so if they can get the fight to be hosted in the U.K., it may provide a moral boost.  Considering the style matchup, Munroe may need all the help he can get.  To win, he'll need to do what he did tonight, imposing his will and not giving the speedy Japanese room to breathe.

Other early weekend results:

• On last night's Fight Night Club card, Enrique Ornelas knocked out Julius Fogle in the fourth round, and Deon Elam scored a decision over Andre Hemphill.
• Luis Concepcion knocked out Eric Ortiz in the fourth round to retain his interim flyweight title.  Alberto Mosquera knocked out Carlos Valdez, also in the fourth, to remain undefeated.  
• Carson Jones scored a 9th round TKO over Jason LeHoullier to inch closer to fringe contender status in the junior middleweight division.  
• Yodchanchai Nakornluang made his pro debut with a knockout win over Little Roseman to win a regional trinket.  I'm not quite sure how the ABCs can sanction this kind of dreck. 
• On the Munroe-Terrazas undercard, Martin Concepcion won a decision over Kevin Hammond in a helluva slugfest and certain fight of the month candidate.  Hammond dominated some of the early rounds, including knocking down and badly hurting Concepcion in the third.  Concepcion stormed back to win rounds by outslugging and outlasting Hammond.  In the tenth, Hammond went for broke, and with the two going toe to toe with almost nothing left, Hammond again rocked Concepcion, but Concepcion was able to survive to make it to the decision.  Also, Olympian Tony Jeffries defeated Nathan King in what appeared to be a bit of a gift decision (the broadcast skipped a few rounds) to remain undefeated.