Last Night in Panama

Last night, our sister site, Boxing Channel, was covering the fights at the Zona Box Event in Panama. This show coincided with the WBO Convention, which concludes tonight.

Francisco Fonseca (22-1-1, 16 KOs) was scheduled to fight Yohan Vasquez (21-2, 18 KOs) as the main event of the evening. However, Fonseca was forced to cancel the fight at the last moment due to stomach issues.  This was the second fight on the card to fall through, after the cancellation of Jeyvier “Perrito” Cintron (8-0, 4 KOs) vs Ricardo “El Matematico” Núñez (29-8, 23 KOs), who suffered a hand injury.

In the first bout, the Argentinean Agustín Mauro Gauto defeated the Colombian José Antonio Jiménez by technical knockout @2:35 of the first round.  Gauto improved his undefeated record to 10 wins with 5 KOs, in addition to capturing the WBO Latin Mini Flyweight Title.

The second match-up consisted of six rounds of action between two local Panamanian fighters, Eliecer Tenorio and José Beitia. Tenorio dominated Beitia and won by unanimous decision. The official scorecards were: 59-57, 58-56(2x)

In the third fight, the Dominican Yenifel Vicente defeated Mexican Víctor Proa by knockout @1:22 of the first round. With this victory, Vicente captured the WBO Latino Super Bantamweight Title.

Jason Sanchez (13-0, 6 KOs) defeated Top Rank’s Jean Carlos “El Chapito” Rivera (15-1, 10 KOs) in the fourth and final bout of the evening.  Sanchez hails from Albuquerque, New Mexico and Rivera is from Puerto Rico. Sanchez won by unanimous decision after 10 rounds of action and captured the vacant WBO Youth Featherweight Title. The official scorecards were: 96-93, 97-92(2x).

In a post-fight interview, Sanchez said, “I knew he started strong, so I trained very hard preparing for that. I knew the early rounds were going to be tough, and after that they’d get easier.” Sanchez is hopeful that this victory opens doors and provides more opportunities for him.

The event was co-promoted by G&V Entertainment and PR Best Boxing at the Centro de Convenciones Vasco Núñez de Balboa (The Panama Hotel) in Panama City, Panama.

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