Manny Flores continues tear with KO of Jorge Leyva in Indio
Manny Flores knew he needed to show he was serious after suffering the only blemish on his record. Five consecutive knockouts later, the message has been received.
Firing a wicked power left hand to the solar plexus of Mexico’s Jorge Leyva in the fourth round Thursday at Fantasy Springs Casino in Indio, California, Flores, 20-1 (16 KOs), became the first to ever finish Leyva while also extending his streak of knockouts – all of which he has delivered inside four rounds.
The left-handed Flores previously knocked down Leyva on a hard left to the head in the final minute of the third.
A 26-year-old junior featherweight, Flores said he wanted a little more work following four straight fights that never went two rounds in response to his only loss, a 2023 unanimous decision to Walter Santibanes.
“It’s hard to calm down when the adrenaline is pumping,” Flores said. “I just kept setting him up [with jabs in the fourth]. … We got it done.”
Leyva, 18-4 (13 KOs), nodded that he was finished to referee Ray Corona 55 seconds into the fourth.
The convincing triumph left Flores enthusiastic about his progress as he looks to break into the top-15 rankings as promoter Oscar De La Hoya’s Golden Boy Promotions is planning increased activity following a rash of recent fighter signings.
“I can box, bully guys, make ‘em look dumb,” Flores, of nearby Coachella, California, said following the bout.
Coming off a first-round knockout victory in October, the southpaw Flores wobbled Leyva with a right-handed blow in the first and swatted him with a punishing combination to close the round.
Leyva, out of the ring since June, struggled to match Flores’ activity and power, wincing through some body blows in the second.
A counter right again caught Leyva off guard in the third, and a pair of effective uppercuts and a neck-snapping right led to a hurtful combination as Leyva was unsure on his feet.
Flores also took joy from his junior middleweight cousin, Grant Flores, who delivered an onslaught in the second round, finishing Philadelphia’s LaQuan Evans with a massive right hand to the head that forced referee Ray Armerndariz to stop the fight 1 minute and 18 seconds into the round.
The 20-year-old Grant Flores, 9-0 (7 KOs), returning to fight after only a 42-day break, absorbed some first-round blows from Evans, 5-4 (2 KOs), before blitzing him with rights, the last of which snapped the fighter’s head back so violently that the bout was waved off.
One of those new Golden Boy signees, 2024 Uzbekistan Olympian Ruslan Abdullaev, made his pro debut for the promotion near the Indio training base that houses the Flores cousins, along with former world titleholders Israil Madrimov and Murodjan “M.J.” Akhmadalev.
Lightweight Abdullaev started impressively, knocking out Jose Alvarado in the second round after Alvarado, 3-20-1 (2 KOs), had reached the bout without ever being knocked out.
Abdullaev, throwing 118 punches in the session, ducked a right hand by Alvarado and buried a left hook toward the liver, as Alvarado lost the bite on his mouthpiece and failed to rise, with the fight ending at the 2-minute 33-second mark.
Heavyweight Federico Pacheco Jnr, 8-0 (6 KOs), made his debut for Golden Boy after signing with the company last month, delivering a sixth-round stoppage victory.
The younger brother of WBO No. 1-rated super middleweight Diego Pacheco, the 271-pound Federico Pacheco, of Los Angeles, was matched kindly against 190-pound Arnulfo Cazares, of Baja, Mexico.
Cazares employed a head-bobbing, feet-shuffling tactic, smiling through the act as the more stoic and lumbering Pacheco sought to catch him with his thunderous offerings.
In the third, Cazares surprisingly backed up Pacheco with a left to the head, prompting Pacheco to unload two heavy rights to the jaw.
Cazares told Pacheco before the fifth, “You’re not going to knock me out,” smiling through a hurtful combination and body shots to close the frame. But in the sixth, Pacheco battered the smaller man, snapping his head back with an array of right-handed blows to end the bout at 1 minute, 46 seconds of the round.
In the DAZN opener, lightweight Johnny Canas, 7-0 (2 KOs), of Santa Ana, California, flirted with trouble by twice dropping his veteran foe, Jesus Perez, 14-20-1 (8 KOs), with low blows in the third and fourth rounds, barely avoiding a point deduction.
Canas, 22, landed two heavy blows to the head in the fifth and battered Perez again to close the sixth, but he couldn’t finish the veteran Perez and settled for victory by three scorecards of 60-54.
