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Fernando Vargas’ eldest son scored another knockout Saturday night.
The 26-year-old southpaw stopped overmatched Alejandro Martinez in the second round of their six-round junior middleweight match at Dignity Health Sports Park. Vargas’ victory was televised as the opener of the pay-per-view portion of the Jose Zepeda-Regis Prograis undercard.
Las Vegas’ Vargas (7-0, 7 KOs) – who is trained by his father, a former junior middleweight champion – dropped Martinez twice during the second round. Referee Ray Corona stopped the action as soon as Martinez hit the canvas for the second time, at 2:40 of the second round.
The 28-year-old Martinez (3-3-1, 2 KOs), of Montebello, California, lost by knockout for the first time in seven professional fights. He boxed above the junior welterweight limit of 140 pounds for just the third time, though, and made his debut as a junior middleweight.
Vargas rocked Martinez with a right hook that made Martinez stumble and eventually landed flat on his back with 41 seconds to go in the second round. Martinez answered Corona’s count at eight, but Vargas blasted him with a left uppercut and a right hook as soon as the action resumed.
Martinez went down again with 20 seconds remaining in the second round. With Martinez sprawled across the canvas, Corona called an end to the bout.
A straight left by Vargas landed on the top of Martinez’s head and made him hold Vargas 25 seconds into the second round.
An obviously bigger Vargas landed the harder punches throughout the opening round and kept Martinez on his back foot. A left-right combination by Vargas staggered Martinez 45 seconds into their fight.
Keith Idec is a senior writer/columnist for BoxingScene.com. He can be reached on Twitter @Idecboxing.