Timothy Bradley and Dominic Salcido Score Knockouts in California

ONTARIO, Ca.-Indio’s Timothy Bradley and Rialto’s Dominic Salcido showed they both had the answer for southpaws with tandem knockouts on Friday.

Bradley used quicker hands and a solid defense to barrel through Kenya’s hard-hitting southpaw Nasser Athumani (15-4-1, 13 KOs) before a sold out audience at the Doubletree Hotel. Now he moves on to bigger and better foes after several years of providing Inland area fans with excitement.

But Athumani was not an easy send off until a right hand counter by Bradley caught the Kenyan at the point of the chin for a knockout at 1:35 of the fifth round.

“That dude hit like a mule,” Bradley (19-0, 11 KOs) said. “I caught him with a sneak right. It’s something I always work on. I extended it so I knew it was over.”

Bradley is ranked number five by the WBC and could possibly be headed for another Showtime fight card at Chumash Casino in June.

“I’m ready for whatever they want to put in front of me,” said Bradley.

In front of the Desert Storm was a taller, left-handed slugger with power in every punch and quick combinations. But it wasn’t enough to stop Bradley whose defense has graduated to an elite level. It was difficult for Athumani to deliver his crunching combinations against Bradley who stooped low and stepped to the side whenever the Kenyan tried to load up.

“I hate fighting with my hands up high I’d rather fight loose,” said Bradley.

His co-promoter Gary Shaw was in the audience as were Jack Mosley, Floyd Mayweather Sr. and Robert Diaz who helps train Marco Antonio Barrera and advises Salcido.

In the semi-main event Salcido returned to home cooking and everything seemed better despite fighting a southpaw with a penchant for knockouts.

A four-punch combination capped by a right uppercut dropped Joel Ortega (4-11, 3 KOs) in the sixth round but the last blow cost him a point when the referee ruled it a punch while the fighter was down. No matter, Salcido trapped Ortega in a corner and unleashed six lightning punches that forced referee Jerry Cantu to halt the bout at 2:31 of the round.

“Last fight it was at a lower weight class and this time my right hand felt really good,” said Salcido (11-0, 6 KOs). “I fought a little hesitant because I never fought a southpaw before.”

From the first round on Salcido used his quicker combinations to snap Ortega’s head repeatedly. Soon right hands were finding a mark through Ortega’s guard and the fighter who looks like a smaller version of Raul Marquez wobbled on several occasions before he was ultimately stopped.

Pomona’s Ivan Stovall (7-1, 5 KOs) stopped Seattle’s Luis Lopez (13-9, 5 KOs) with a barrage of punches at the end of the third round. As Lopez wobbled back to his round, his trainers advised that the super middleweight fight be stopped.

In a lightweight contest Angel Flores (7-1) of Las Vegas out-pointed Colton’s Jesse Rivas (2-4-2) in a six round bout 58-56 twice, 59-55.

Mira Loma’s Hildo Silva (4-0) survived a first round knockdown from a left hook by Cornell Davis (3-10-2) and proceeded to out-work the L.A. fighter to win by unanimous decision after four rounds 38-37 on all three cards.

A junior featherweight match between Jesus “Pollo” Hernandez (4-0) and Arizona’s Duma Trevizo (0-4) ended in a unanimous decision for the L.A. fighter 40-36.