Lomachenko vs Rigondeaux results: Christopher Diaz, Shakur Stevenson, Michael Conlan pick up quick wins

Featherweight prospects Christopher Diaz, Shakur Stevenson, and Michael Conlan showed their goods on tonight’s episode of Top Rank Boxing on ESPN, scoring victories on the Lomachenko-Rigondeaux undercard in New York.

Diaz (22-0, 14 KO) totally overpowered Bryant Cruz (18-3, 9 KO) in the night’s co-feature, scoring a third round TKO victory where he dropped Cruz four times — once in the first, twice in the second round, and again early in the third, prompting referee Harvey Dock to stop the fight.

Cruz, it should be noted, came in on short notice to replace Casey Ramos as Diaz’s opponent. But he was in shape — he just fought a few weeks ago, and won — and this was a great showing for Diaz, as he looked completely focused and locked in, meaning from the outset to do damage and impress.

Puerto Rican boxing has a superstar vacancy right now, with the retirement of Miguel Cotto, and the 23-year-old Diaz feels he can be the man to fill those shoes.

“I said two weeks ago, I’m going to be the next superstar. Cotto retired, we’ve got a lot of fighters. I’m going to be the next superstar for Puerto Rico,” he said.

2016 Olympic silver medalist and unbeaten featherweight prospect Stevenson improved to 4-0 (2 KO) with a second round stoppage over Oscar Mendoza in the TV opener.

Stevenson, 20, showed off his speed and skill against the overmatched Mendoza (4-3, 2 KO), repeatedly ripping him with clean shots to both the head and body. There is still some concern about his power as he moves up in weight, as he landed flush shots here and didn’t put Mendoza down, referee Sparkle Lee stepped in to stop a hopeless mismatch. But power isn’t everything, and Stevenson has speed and skills to burn.

Conlan improved to 5-0 (4 KO), but his stoppage streak ended in a win over Argentina’s Luis Molina (7-4-1, 2 KO). Molina deserves some credit for toughness, but he was also supremely overmatched against the Irishman, a former Olympian and amateur standout.

Conlan, 26, outlanded Molina 128-31 overall according to CompuBox, and pretty much cruised to the win, but the showier aspects of his style don’t look as great when he’s not getting a stoppage, and there are key areas of his game that need to be fine-tuned as he hopefully matures into a serious contender.