On Friday night from the Don Haskins Center in El Paso, Texas, hometown favorite Antonio “Tono” Escalante (22-2, 14 KOs) squared up against rugged veteran Edel “Cuate” Ruiz (31-22-5, 20 KOs) from Los Mochis, Mexico in a 10 round bout. The 25 yr. old Escalante has a fan friendly style and has power on both hands all while making it too easy for his opponents to hit him. Escalante has been on a 9 bout winning streak including KO wins over top rated opponents Mike Oliver and Gary Stark Jr. before he was upset by former world champ Mauricio Pastrana. Ruiz is a tough fighter who has been in the ring with several former and current world champs and most recently knocked out heavy favorite Clarence Adams in 4 rounds in his last outing.

The fight started out competitive with both fighters trying to find their rhythm and as the round progressed Escalante became the aggressor as Ruiz was settling in as the counter puncher. Ruiz was holding his own by jabbing his way in making Escalante miss and showing good movement in setting up his power shots. In the second round Escalante started to focus on the body realizing that Ruiz has been stopped by body shots in the past. Ruiz, due to Escalante’s pressure, was becoming less active but he did land a nice right hand that Escalante approved of and requested more. The round ended with a good exchange of power shots that saw Escalante get the better of Ruiz, setting the tone for the end result.

The third round was more of the same with Ruiz content in trying to counter and time the much busier Escalante until mid way in the round when everything changed. Escalante threw a left hook to the body that sent Ruiz down to his knees in front of the neutral corner. Ruiz, visibly hurt, was able to just beat the count and the ref was going to allow him to continue but thankfully Ruiz’s corner stepped in and indicated to the ref that his fighter had enough. Escalante won the bout via TKO victory at 1:52 mark of the third round improving his record to 23-2, 15 KOs while Edel “Cuate” Ruiz fell to 31-23-5, 20 KOs. Escalante is hoping that he can improve more technically with new trainer Louie Burke in hopes of challenging for a world title next year. The always game Ruiz will always earn his paycheck against any opponent he faces but we can only ask, for how much longer?

In other action, Alex “Chamuco” Becerra (19-8, 9 KOs) went up against Francisco “Panchito” Dominguez (8-6, 2 KOs) in a 6 round fight. In a pretty entertaining bout hometown Becerra simply out worked the Mexican throughout the fight landing big shots with usually no answered behind them. At the end of the fight Becerra simply dictated the fight and wore down the too easy to hit Dominguez and offered a low number of punches to counter the consistent pressure. Alex “Chamuco” Becerra improved to 20-8, 9 KOs with Unanimous Decision over Francisco “Panchito” Dominguez who fell 8-7, 2 KOs.

Other televised results:
Cesar Valenzuela improved to 4-0, 0 KOs with a Majority Decision over Roni Alvarado who fell to 3-3, 3 KOs.

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