“Alacran” Perez Wins Again & Saul “Kid Dinamita’ Rodriguez Gets “W”

INGLEWOOD, CALIF.-Alejandro “Alacran” Perez never looks imposing but he’s like a jackhammer that keeps pounding away until that five-feet thick concrete slab cracks under the constant pressure.

Top Rank, Bash Boxing and Art of Boxing put on the show.

Before a large crowd Perez (18-3-1, 12 Kos) kept pounding the resilient Edgar Riovalle (35-15-2, 25 Kos) with shots to the head and body. It wasn’t too long until the fans at Hollywood Park Casino saw what the jackhammer could do on Saturday.

Perez knocked out Riovalle with a body shot at 1:14 of round seven to continue his surprising run as a junior lightweight. In previous victories the Mexican born fighter defeated Art Hovhannisyan and Antonio Escalante.

You just can’t count him out.

Riovalle showed he could absorb the big blows to the head. But when the body shots pierced the guard the Mexico City veteran just couldn’t hide the pain. In fact he couldn’t get up as he was counted out.

In another junior lightweight clash Riverside’s Saul “Kid Dinamita” Rodriguez (10-0-1, 7 Kos) met Lynwood’s Dominic Coca (8-4, 3 Kos) in a bout set for six rounds.

Coca had been out of the game for about six years until he fought this past May against Leon Spinks III. He lost the fight but was able to shake some of the rust out in San Diego. At one time Coca was a prospect like Rodriguez. Where did all the time go?

Rodriguez showed what his mentor WBO featherweight titlist Mikey Garcia has tutored him for two years: patience pays off. The deliberate tactics by Riverside’s Rodriguez behind a steady jab and some counters finally opened up Coca’s defense at the end of the first round.

“Sparring with Mikey helped me a lot for this fight,” said Rodriguez who is a stable mate with the champion in Riverside. They go to Oxnard occasionally to spar or Oxnard goes to Riverside. “He’s always telling me to be patient.”

Behind a solid jab Rodriguez was able to dictate the pace and the distance. When Coca opened up with a combination in the third round that left the opening for Rodriguez and that’s all he needed. A left hook caught Coca and stunned him, then came the barrage of blows from different angles. Coca tried his best to slip the blows but Rodriguez kept the pressure on.

“I knew I was going to finish him,” said Rodriguez, adding that it was not an easy fight. “He was the second strongest guy I’ve fought.”

Other Inglewood results

Former junior lightweight champion Takahiro Ao (24-3-1, 11 Kos) of Japan knocked out Chile’s Hardy Paredes (16-12) with a left cross through the guard at 2:51 of round two. He also knocked down Paredes with a right in the same round.

L.A.’s Pedro Duran knocked out Anthony Briones at 2:06 of the first round.

Vyacheslav Shabransky (4-0, 3 Kos) of Ukraine defeated the stubborn chin of D’Quan Morgan (3-2-1, 3 Kos) by unanimous decision after six rounds of a cruiserweight clash.

Friday Night Ventura Fights

Russia’s Maxim Vlasov (26-1, 12 Kos) defeated Riverside’s Mark Suarez (25-4, 13 Kos) by unanimous decision after eight rounds of a super middleweight clash. Suarez had been out of action for seven years. It was his first boxing match since losing a welterweight world title bout to Kermit Cintron in 2006.