Charly Suarez took out his frustrations on Jorge Castaneda, knocking the Texan down twice to score a third round stoppage Friday on the Munguia-Bazinyan undercard at Desert Diamond Arena in Glendale, Asia.
Suarez (18-0, 10 KOs) was originally scheduled to face undefeated Andres Cortes in a WBO eliminator before Cortes withdrew due to an injury during training. That match was originally supposed to be the joint match, but Suarez remained on the card and faced Castaneda just prior to the ESPN televised portion of the card.
Suarez, 36, of San Isidro, Davao del Norte, Philippines, scored the first knockdown of Castaneda (17-4, 13 KOs) midway through the round after a lead right hand set up a left hook that Castaneda couldn’t handle . After getting to his feet, Castaneda was dropped again by a series of right hands that ended the fight.
CHARLY SUAREZ JUST DID IT 🍿#MunguiaBazinyan | @TwistedTea pic.twitter.com/1MMp0HknUP
— Top Rank Boxing (@trboxing) September 21, 2024
Suarez, a 2016 Olympian for the Philippines, is ranked no. 3 by the WBO and no. 5 by the IBF at 130 pounds.
In the upset of the night so far, top-ranked Alan Garcia saw his unbeaten run come to an end when he was knocked out by the unbeaten Ricardo Fernandez (16-13, 1 KO) in five rounds. Garcia (14-1, 11 KOs) was caught by a perfectly timed overhand right as he dropped his left while throwing a right hook along the ropes.
“Kid Kansas” Garcia was stopped for the count in their eight round scheduled lightweight bout.
Suarez wasn’t the only Filipino junior lightweight to pick up a win on the undercard.
Demler “DJ” Zamora (14-0, 9 KOs) of Las Vegas won an eight-round unanimous decision over Gerardo Antonio Perez (12-5-1, 3 KOs), with the judges’ scorecards reading 80-72 two cards read and the third gives a round to Perez at 79-73.
The 21-year-old Zamora, a Filipino American southpaw trained by Kay Koroma, has now gone the distance in his last three fights.
