PBC on FOX results: Omar Figueroa blasts through Robert Guerrero

Omar Figueroa hadn’t fought since December 2015. Robert Guerrero had lost two in a row and four of his last six. It was a big fight for both men, a must-win scenario. And Figueroa’s youth proved out.

Guerrero (33-6-1, 18 KO) fought with all the heart he had left, but his body has been through the wars over the years, and it showed. The 34-year-old veteran was dropped five times and stopped in the third round by Figueroa (27-0-1, 19 KO), who simply had too much firepower for a shopworn version of “The Ghost.”

Figueroa, 27, started slow in the first round, a frame Guerrero clearly won, but came out strong in the second. He saw that Guerrero was ready to fight a Figueroa-style battle on the inside, and he took advantage, drilling Guerrero with uppercuts from close range and doing damage almost every time he connected.

Figueroa, a former lightweight, has said he wants to settle in at 140, but we’ll see. He can clearly bang and brawl at 147, and if he gets a money offer there, he might have no choice but to take it.

As for Guerrero, the reality is that he should probably retire. He’s on a bad streak and this was a bad loss, even with all the determination he showed. He made it a fun wipeout, but it was a wipeout nonetheless. It’s exceptionally unlikely that he’s going to become a contender again.

Here’s a look at the three second round knockdowns:

And here’s the finish:

2012 Olympian and light heavyweight prospect Marcus Browne did pretty much as expected against Seanie Monaghan, stopping the popular local fighter in the second round of what wound up being a complete mismatch.

Browne (20-0, 15 KO) was far too fast and talented for Monaghan (28-1, 17 KO), whose padded record built in New York club fights and on big bout undercards did nothing to help him in this matchup. Give Monaghan credit for stepping up and trying, but this was a brutal exposing of a guy whose record didn’t match his level.

Adam Kownacki opened the card with a fairly dominant TKO-4 win over Artur Szpilka, a former title challenger who hadn’t fought since a January 2016 loss to Deontay Wilder, where he was knocked clean out.

Kownacki (16-0, 13 KO) came forward the whole time, and Szpilka (20-3, 15 KO) really had no answers. He looked slow and creaky on offense, and he just couldn’t get out of the way of Kownacki’s shots, or deal with his activity. Szpilka has always fought a risky style, and Kownacki took full advantage of that, putting him on notice early before dropping him in the fourth. Szpilka did get up, but a few more clean shots forced the referee to stop the fight.