Rosa, Chaves, Corzo post wins in tripleheader at Buenos Aires’ Luna Park

BUENOS AIRES, Argentina.- A trio of young local unbeaten prospects posted wins in a tripleheader at the legendary Luna Park Stadium this past Saturday.

In the main event, Jose Rosa stopped late-sub Edwin Bennett in a somewhat lackluster performance that was just getting started when Ecuador’s Bennett (in for his compatriot Marlon Aguas, who was unable to travel at the last minute) decided to remain in his corner at the start of the fourth round of a scheduled ten-rounder in the welterweight division. The 28-year-old Bennett looked sluggish against a notorious slow starter like Rosa, who was finally finding his range and punishing Bennet to the midsection and chasing him all over the ring by the end of the third and final round of action.

Rosa improved to 25-0 with 18 knockouts, while Bennett heads back home to Quito with a 16-6 (8 KO) ledger.

In the co-main event of the night, Alan Chaves made quick work of Raul Morillo when he stopped thin e Venezuelan visitor in the second round with a crushing shot to the liver in a lightweight bout scheduled for ten rounds. Chaves, nephew of former titlist Diego and youngest member of a four-generation boxing dynasty, sent Morillo to the canvas with a straight left from his southpaw stance in the first round and repeated the dose in the following episode before landing with power in Morillo’s mid-section to send him down on his knees for the full count.

Alan Chaves (right) follows through after landing a hook against Raul Morillo – Photo by Nelson Quispe/Boxeo de Primera

Chaves remained unbeaten with a mark of 16-0 (14 KOs)  while Morillo slips to 9-2 with 6 KOs.

In the first televised fight of the night, Pablo Corzo outpunched and outmuscled Gaspar Fernandez, stopping his foe in an entertaining scheduled ten-rounder in the super middleweight division. Corzo was pin-point accurate throughout the bout, neutralizing Fernandez’s punching power by taking the initiative, first with isolated outbursts and then with demolishing combinations upstairs. After having Fernandez on the ropes and almost out in the sixth, Corzo finally went deep with a crushing body shot that sent Fernandez down in a heap to be counted out.

Pablo Corzo (right) connects against Gaspar Fernandez – Photo by Nelson Quispe/Boxeo de Primera

Corzo, a young contender at 23 years of age already ranked at the top-ten level by two major organizations, improves to 19-0 (15 KOs) while Fernández goes home with a 6-2 (6 KOs) record.

Earlier, Silio Vilte (7-0, 5 KOs) engaged in a six-round target practice against Damian Enrique in the junior welterweight division, in a fight that was cut short in the fourth round when the much older Enrique showed he was not up to the task. The southpaw Vilte rocked Enrique (2-3, 1 KO) throughout the bout and scored at will until he referee decided he had seen enough midway through the fourth episode.

Earlier in the night, Elias Duguet and Alfredo Soto gave the audience a throwback performance harkening back to the stadium’s golden era when they engaged in a toe-to-toe slugfest in the lightweight division for six rounds in which the southpaw Soto started out banging and sent Duguet to the canvas in the second round. Staging a remarkable comeback, Duguet rallied to hurt Soto to the body and slow him down to place him in range of his wild volleys. Scores were 57-56 (twice) for Duguet, who improves to 6-1-1 (2 KOs) , with an identical remaining scorecard going to the nails-tough Soto, now 12-1 with 8 KOs.

Diego M. Morilla has written for The Ring since 2013. He has also written for HBO.com, ESPN.com and many other magazines, websites, newspapers and outlets since 1993. He is a full member of the Boxing Writers Association of America and an elector for the International Boxing Hall of Fame. He has won two first-place awards in the BWAA’s annual writing contest, and he is the moderator of The Ring’s Women’s Ratings Panel. He served as copy editor for the second era of The Ring en Español (2018-2020) and is currently a writer and editor for RingTV.com.

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