Antillon prevails by TKO
The Joint is new, but Urbano Antillon is the same devastating force he was in the Hard Rock hotel's former venue.
The WBC's top-ranked lightweight contender had won twice at the former Joint. On Friday, he scored a fifth-round technical knockout of Tyrone Harris in the featured bout of the first boxing card at the new Joint.
"It took me a little while to adapt to him," said Antillon (26-0, 19 KOs), who suffered a cut over his left eye in the third round. "He got me a couple times early. But once I figured him out, I was fine."
Antillon picked up the pace in the fifth, tagging Harris with a straight right to the chin. He followed with a left hook to the body and a combination to the head that floored Harris. Seconds later, Harris (23-5) was down for good. Referee Tony Weeks didn't even bother to count, stopping it at the 2:25 mark.
Antillon, who had been training in Los Angeles with Manny Pacquiao, must wait to see if he gets a title shot against WBC champ Edwin Valero.
"I'd like to get an opportunity," he said. "But we'll fight anyone. Juan Diaz. Valero. (Michael) Katsidis. It doesn't matter."
In the co-main event, welterweight Alfonso Gomez survived a bloodbath to score an eighth-round TKO over Juan Buendia in a scheduled 10-round bout.
Both fighters sustained multiple cuts to the face. But Gomez landed a left hook to the body, sending Buendia to the canvas early in the eighth. He got up but told referee Robert Byrd he could not continue. Gomez improved to 19-4-2, while Buendia fell to 14-3-1.
Las Vegas' Diego Magdaleno (9-0) survived a first-round knockdown to defeat Juan Santiago by unanimous decision (40-37, 39-37, 39-36) in their four-round super featherweight bout.
