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SAN ANTONIO – Fight fans looking for the next southpaw sensation to come out of the Philippines, someone to play heir to Manny Pacquiao, had best keep looking. Mark Melligan is not their man.

Friday at Freeman Coliseum, in the main event of a card broadcast on ESPN2’s “Friday Night Fights” – a program featuring boxing in 3D for the first time – Argentine welterweight Sebastian Lujan (38-5-2, 24 KOs) swarmed, swatted, slapped and ultimately starched Melligan (21-3, 14 KOs), knocking him out at 0:48 of round 9.

At the time of the stoppage, the 15rounds.com ringside scorecard had Lujan ahead 76-73.

The fight began auspiciously for Melligan, who threw tight combinations and set effective traps, repeatedly tagging Lujan with counter left uppercuts. But Lujan’s chin proved a stubborn one, and Lujan’s spirit was not persuaded by Melligan’s class.

Beginning in the fifth round, though, Melligan’s legs began to show signs of their own of persuasion. No longer were Melligan’s combinations crisp, no longer were his hooks tight. At the end of the sixth, Melligan went down for the first time – a feat he would duplicate at the end of the seventh and eighth as well. Then Melligan began the ninth round on shaky pins, Lujan swarmed him, and no 10-count was needed.

MICKEY BEY VS. ALEJANDRO RODRIGUEZ
There’s a good chance Alejandro Rodriguez still doesn’t know what the count is.

In Friday’s co-main event, a lightweight scrap scheduled for eight rounds but ending in fewer than half that many, Cleveland’s Mickey Bey (17-0-1, 9 KOs) turned an initially competitive match into a one-punch rout when he drilled Rodriguez (12-4, 6 KOs) with a gorgeous counter right cross, and then saw the fight waved-off a few seconds later at 2:10 of round 4.

Bey’s right cross actually dropped Rodriguez twice. After slipping a Rodriguez left jab, Bey connected with a right hand that – despite partially catching Rodriguez’s left shoulder – landed with force enough to put Rodriguez on the seat of his trunks. Rodriguez rose, walked towards the referee, and then stumbled into the ropes.

With his victory, Bey remained undefeated and served notice to the lightweight division that he will make a competitive match with any of its current titlists.

INAUGURAL CLASS OF SAN ANTONIO BOXING HALL OF FAME RECOGNIZED
An hour before ESPN2 went on the air, the Freeman Coliseum’s ring filled with local legends composing the inaugural class of the new San Antonio Boxing Hall of Fame.

This city’s three world champions – Jesse James Leija, John Michael Johnson and the late Robert Quiroga – joined legendary trainers Tony Ayala, Sr. and Joe Souza in the Hall’s first class. The SABHOF, a brainchild of Texas promoter Lester Bedford, will be housed within Freeman Coliseum.

UNDERCARD
Friday’s TV swing bout saw San Antonio lightweight Ivan Najera (2-0, 1 KO) make a fantastically entertaining opening round with Laredo’s Pedro Martinez (2-1) before eventually prevailing by technical knockout before the second round could begin. Martinez appeared to tear a muscle in his right forearm just as the bell rang to end round 1. He crumpled in his corner and asked to have his gloves removed, ending what might have proved to be the fight of the night, and giving Najera his first career knockout.

In the evening’s third match, local lightweight Abraham Esquivel (4-1, 1 KO) had surprisingly little trouble with fellow Texan Pedro Dominquez (2-2) , stopping him at 0:48 of round 1. Esquivel’s victory came on an unusual finishing blow – a right hook to the body – that somehow dropped Dominquez for a rolling, writhing count of 14 or so. Moments later, though, Dominquez had made a full recovery.

Before that, undefeated Dallas bantamweight Ray Ximenez, Jr. (3-0) breezed through New Mexico’s Aaron Fernandez (1-5), decisioning him by three unanimous scores of 40-34. Showing flashy if not particularly heavy hands, Ximenez twice received benefits of the referee’s doubt, winning credit for two questionable knockdowns. But there was nothing questionable about the outcome as Ximenez had Fernandez outclassed from the first bell.

Friday’s undercard began with a four-round welterweight match between two Texas welterweights – Edinburg’s Randy Fuentes (1-0) and San Antonio’s Mark Trujillo (0-2) – a fight that saw the southpaw Fuentes prevail in his pro debut by three unanimous-decision scores of 40-36.

With help from a well-publicized ticket giveaway, opening bell rang on a respectable Freeman Coliseum crowd of about 3,000 at 8:11 PM local time.

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