Last minute substitute Manuel Vargas was just too small for the Filipino Flash, Nonito Donaire. The former minimum weight title contender from Lagos De Moreno, Mexico was game but outgunned.

 Donaire (23-1) fired right hands at will, undeterred by anything coming back from Vargas (26-5-1). In the third Donaire fired a left uppercut from distance that caught Vargas under the chin and dropped him to the canvas.

Referee Joe Cortez reached the count of ten at 1:33 of the third round.
 

WBO bantamweight champion Fernando Montiel fired a left hook to the body that left challenger Ciso Morales writhing on the canvas. The end came swiftly at 2:06 of the first round when referee Robert Byrd stood over Morales (14-1) and waived off the contest.

It was Morales’ (14-1) first attempt for a world title. The victory was the 2nd defense for the three division champion from Los Mochis, Mexico. Montiel is now 40-2-2 with 30 KOs.
 

Former flyweight champion Eric Morel of San Juan, Puerto Rico is a champion once again. In a tightly contested 12 round bout fought for the WBO interim bantamweight title, Morel did enough to earn a 115-113, 113-115, 116-112 split decision victory over former two division champion Gerry Penalosa.

Penalosa (54-8-2) was the aggressor throughout landing the harder, more telling blows. Morel (42-2), ever the slick boxer, countered with crisp rights that quickly caused Penalosa’s left check to swell. Each round was close as Penalosa applied pressure Morel tried to thwart with movement and counter punching. In the sixth the boxers clashed heads resulting in a cut between Penalosa’s eyes.

They clashed heads a second time in the round causing a cut along Penalosa’s left eye. The Penalosa corner was unable to stop the bleeding and it bothered Penalosa for the remainder of the contest. Morel took advantage and dominated the championship rounds to earn the nod and the belt.
 

In perhaps the most intriguing contest of the night, Bernabe Concepcion survived a furious final round rally by Mario Santiago to win their ten round featherweight bout. For his winning effort Concepcion earned a date with WBO feather weight champion Juanma Lopez. In a lefty-righty matchup of contrasting styles, Concepcion won over the judges despite being outworked by 402 punches according to CompuBox. Santiago, a southpaw from Ponce, Puerto Rico, feed Concepcion (30-2-1) a steady diet of jabs in an effort to keep the hard charging Filipino at bay.

Concepcion countered with power shots thrown through and around the tightly held guard of Santiago (21-2-1). A right hand through the guard dropped Santiago in the sixth en route to a 10-8 round. The combatants traded roles in the 10th when Santiago opened up and punished Concepcion with heavy blows over the final three minutes. In the end, Concepcion won the boxer-puncher match up by scores of 98-91, 96-93 & 97-92.
 

Diego Magdaleno scored a unanimous decision victory over Italy’s Floriano Pagliara by outworking his opponent over eight super featherweight rounds. Magdaleno (14-0) applied steady pressure and walked down Pagliara (10-4) behind crisp lefts.

The final score cards tallied 80-72, 78-74 & 79-73 in favor of the southpaw from Las Vegas.

Middleweight prospect Matt Korobov needed exactly one minute five seconds to end the evening for East St. Louis’ Lamar Harris (6-5-3). The power punching southpaw from Orotukan, Russia drove Harris to the ropes with a straight left hand where he proceeded to punish him with lefts and rights. Harris worked his way off the ropes but ran into another Korobov left that buckled his knees. Referee Robert Byrd stepped between the fighters waiving off the contest. Korobov remains perfect as a professional with ten wins without a loss.
 

Young Jose Benavidez quickly convinced Texas’ John Vega (0-2) that he was no match for hard hitting super lightweight from Phoenix Arizona. Benavidez (2-0) dropped Vega with a 1-2 in the opening moments of the fight and bombed away with right hands until Vega turned his back and signaled “no mas” at 1:07 of the opening round.

Mark Melligen hung the first “L” on the career ledger of fellow welterweight Raymond Gatica. Gatica entered the ring perfect as a professional with eleven wins and no losses. He left the ring victim of a TKO stoppage at 2:36 of the sixth round. Melligen dropped Gatica in both the fifth and sixth rounds before stopping him with a flurry of punches at 2:36 of the sixth. With the victory Melligen improves his record to 17-2 while Gatica drops to 11-1.

In the first contest of the night, super featherweights Edgar Portillo of Midland, Texas and Hector Marengo of Arecibo, Puerto Rico fought to a six round draw. There were no knockdowns in the closely contested fight. With the draw Marengo is 5-0-1 while Portillo’s record stands at 6-3-1.