By Francisco Salazar

LOS ANGELES, Calif. - Christian Gonzalez could not afford to overlook someone like Alejandro Ochoa.

While he had a losing record, Ochoa entered his bout against Gonzalez having won four of his previous five fights.

Gonzalez stayed focus, hurting and eventually finishing Ochoa in the second round before a sold-out crowd at the Belasco Theatre on Friday night.

In his previous bout, Ochoa scored a shocking six round majority decision win over Kevin Rivers, who entered the bout unbeaten. Ochoa hoped to do the same to Gonzalez, but was overwhelmed by the power by the unbeaten 20-year-old.

Ochoa hung in there with Gonzalez, finding some success landing straight rights and lefts to the head. Midway through the first round, Gonzalez stunned Ochoa with a right uppercut to the head, sending back against a corner.

As the bout progressed, Ochoa was able to score on the inside. Midway through the second round, Gonzalez landed a right uppercut that staggered Ochoa. Moments later, another right hand dropped Ochoa to the canvas. Ochoa stood up and tried to hold on, but another barrage of punches from Gonzalez sent Ochoa reeling against the ropes. Gonzalez followed up, prompting referee Raul Caiz, Jr. to stop the bout at 2:13.

Gonzalez goes to 12-0, 11 KOs. Ochoa drops to 7-11-2, 1 KO.

Bantamweight Oscar Negrete stopped veteran Ernesto Guerrero in the third round.

The taller Guerrero was able to fight from a distance, but Negrete was able to close the distance between the two fighters. As the bout progressed, Negrete would often land combinations to the head and body of Guerrero.

Negrete stepped up his aggression by the third round, landing hard right hands to the head of Guerrero. Towards the end of the round, a barrage of punches culminating with a right to the stomach dropped Guerrero to one knee. Guerrero beat the count, but referee Wayne Hedgpeth waved the fight over at 2:51.

Negrete improves to 12-0, 5 KOs, while Guerrero drops to 20-17, 13 KOs.

Junior lightweight Ivan Delgado won a one-sided six round decision over Luis Lizarraga.

From the opening bell, Delgado landed repeatedly with left hooks to the head of Lizarraga. Delgado scored often whether it was a lead or counter left hook to the head.

To his credit, Lizarraga took the punches well and tried to rally with a series of punches. However, his punches did not seem to affect Delgado, who continued to work from the center of the ring and look to land that left hook.

Lizarraga attempted to throw more jabs in the second half of the fight, but Delgado easily cut the distance between himself and Lizarraga, landing with both hooks and right uppercuts.

All three judges scored the bout 60-54 in favor of Delgado.

Delgado improves to 8-0-1, 2 KOs, while Lizarraga dropped to 5-7-1, 2 KOs.

- Featherweight Nicholas Arce (6-0, 6 KOs) stopped Ali Gonzalez in the second round. Arce dropped Gonzalez in the opening round, but Gonzalez was not able to continue in the following round, allegedly due to back spasms. Time of the stoppage was 1:53.

- Featherweight Emilio Sanchez (11-0, 8 KOs) stopped Ivan Hernandez (4-2, 1 KO) in the first round. Sanchez dropped Hernandez with a left hook, prompting referee Wayne Hedgpeth to stop the bout at 2:05.

- In the opening bout of the Golden Boy Promotions card, super flyweight Joshua Franco (3-0, 2 KOs) knocked out Leonardo Reyes (3-8, 1 KO) in the first round. Time of the knockout was 2:19.

Francisco A. Salazar has written for Boxingscene.com since September of 2012 and has covered boxing in Southern California and abroad since 2000. Francisco also covers boxing for the Ventura County (CA) Star newspaper, RingTV, and Knockout Nation. He can be reached by email at

santio89@yahoo.com

or on Twitter at FSalazarBoxing