One of Puerto Rico’s upcoming stars, Emmanuel “Manny” Rodriguez (10-0, 6 KO’s) demolished former two time United States National Champion, Miguel ‘No Fear’ Cartagena (13-2, 5 KO’s) of Philadelphia in the first round to capture the vacant WBO Latino title at the bantamweight ( 118lbs ) division in a 10-round bout held at the Cosme Beitia Coliseum in Cataño, Puerto Rico.
Since the beginning of the bout, Rodriguez was the aggressor, connecting accurate straight right hands on Cartagena’s face, which gave Rodriguez a opening to land a powerful left uppercut to the chin that immediately ended the fight. Cartagena was in very bad shape after the fight.
“I want to thank God for this victory. My respect goes to Team Cartagena for accepting this fight in Puerto Rico. I must say, Cartagena is a very humble person”, said Rodríguez that also commented “the training for this bout was really hard because we knew how good Cartagena is. I did my job, and I’m very grateful with my trainer Jim Pagán for his effort during training camp, and I can’t forget to thanks the fans for showing me so much support in my first title fight”.
In amateur boxing, Rodriguez was a former Singapore 2010 Youth Olympic Games gold medalist, Azerbaijan’s 2010 World Youth Championships silver medalist, 2011 Puerto Rico National Champion, among other achievements.
In other bouts:
Emmanuel ‘Pinky’ Colon (6-0, 4 KO’s – 140lbs) TKO Joananthony Vázquez (4-9-2, 2 KO’s) in the first round.
Jason ‘the Canito’ Sosa (13-1-3, 9 KO’s – 130lbs) defeated Juan Cruz ( 5-16-3, 1 KO’s ) by TKO in the second round.
In a thrilling encounter, Derrieck Cuevas (1-0, KO’s – 140lbs) defeated by unanimous decision, Jorge Santiago (0-1) by unanimous decision. The judges scored 39-36, 38-37, 38-37.
Luis ‘Zurdo’ Rosario (3-0-1, 3 KO’s – 122lbs) knocked out Joseph Santos ( 0-7 ) in the first round.
Juvenal ‘el Gringo’ Ramos (2-0, 2 KO’s – 135lbs) defeated Henry Lopez ( 0-3 ) by TKO in the first round.
Jesus ‘Chiquito’ Soler (7-1, 3 KO’s – 112lbs) defeated Alexis Diaz ( 0-7-1 ) by TKO in the fifth round.
Miguel Canino (4-0, 2 KO – 140lbs) won by unanimous decision over Jose Cruz ( 0-1 ). All three judges voted 40-36.
Adalberto ‘Adan’ Zorrilla (1-0, 1 KO’s – 122lbs) defeated Elliot Rios ( 0-2 ) by TKO in the first round
Julio Santos (1-2, 1 KO) got his first victory by defeating Cecil Martínez ( 0- 7) by TKO in the first round.
The boxing card was presented exclusively by DIRECTV Puerto Rico.
Photos by Esdel Palermo / Fresh Boxing