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Juan Francisco Estrada stepped in on short notice for a fight tonight with Victor Mendez on HBO’s final boxing card, fighting at super bantamweight instead of his normal super flyweight, and dominated through seven rounds before the fight was stopped with Mendez still on his stool.
Estrada (38-3, 26 KO) kept himself busy with this fight, and looked sharp and strong, completely overwhelming Mendez (28-4-2, 20 KO) in every round. At the time of the stoppage, BLH had Estrada up 70-63, and I can’t imagine anyone had it any differently.
Estrada destroyed Mendez as far as the punch stats go, landing 225 of 602 (37%) total punches and 198 of 453 (44%) of his power shots. Compare that to a meager 67 of 566 (12%) and 59 of 337 (18%) for Mendez, and you had all the evidence really needed to describe what went down in this fight, which was really never competitive and was stopped at the right time. Mendez had no hope, and there was no reason to take further punishment.
Hopefully, we’ll see Estrada move back down to 115 and maybe get that rematch with champion Srisaket Sor Rungvisai in 2019.