FERNANDO MONTIEL KO3 RAFAEL CONCEPCION

The big hits of this past weekend were KO winners Fernando Montiel, Alfredo Angulo and Denis Lebedev. They took care of business in a combined total of less than six rounds.
 
Montiel looked tremendous in his third-round destruction of Rafael Concepcion in their bantamweight title fight televised on Fox Sports Espanol.
 
This was Montiel’s first bout since his upset stoppage victory over Hozumi Hasegawa in Japan, and he went out to make a statement in front of the Mexican crowd.
 
On paper, Concepcion looked like going rounds. He fought gamely before being retired by his corner after nine rounds in a war with Jorge Arce, and he went 12 rounds with the sharpshooting Filipino Nonito Donaire. Montiel, however, simply blew him away.
 
Big left hooks from Montiel had Concepcion down twice in the second round and hanging on so desperately that referee Robert Byrd told the judges to take a point. It was obvious after this 10-6 round from hell that Concepcion would not be able to last much longer, and, sure enough, Montiel flattened him with a right hand after 67 seconds of round three.
 
A fight between Montiel and Donaire had been mooted. If the fight can be arranged, Montiel will be the favourite, having crushed a fighter who gave Donaire a long, tough fight although comparing the results is a bit misleading because Concepcion had a weight advantage when he fought the Filipino Flash. There is no doubting the quality of Montiel’s performance on Saturday night, however. He looked sensational.