ANTHONY OLASCUAGA carved out a ruthless second-round finish in the early hours of this morning, moments before expressing his desire to unify the flyweight division.
The WBO champion had found himself on a fine run of form, successfully defending his title against former world champions Jonathan Gonzalez and Hiroto Kyoguchi in his last two outings.
This time around, he faced a noticeably less accomplished operator in the form of Juan Carlos Camacho, but ultimately wasted little time before putting their class disparity firmly on display.
Olascuaga, 10-1 (7 KOs), leaped straight onto the front foot, not landing any particularly meaningful shots, while Camacho, 19-2 (8 KOs), maintaining his sharp footwork, enjoyed an equally encouraging start.
It was in the second round, though, that the Puerto Rican began to take risks – much to his detriment – and, sure enough, walked onto a spiteful right uppercut from his opponent.
That shot was then followed closely by a punishing barrage of punches, most of them uppercuts, as Olascuaga pinned his man up against the ropes and engineered an emphatic finish.
To be precise, the stoppage arrived at 2-36 of the frame, with referee Harvey Dock deeming Camacho to be in no position to continue.
“I wanna unify, man,” the champion said in his post-fight interview at The Fontainebleau, Las Vegas. “I’m hungry. People say ‘belts don’t matter’, [but] belts matter!”
In terms of potential unifications, newly-crowned WBC champion Ricardo Sandoval, who dethroned Kenshiro Teraji in July, would certainly make sense for fellow American Olascuaga.
It is important to highlight, though, that Sandoval has been ordered to face Galal Yafai, who, after suffering a devastating points defeat to Francisco Rodriguez Jr – who then later failed a drugs test – in June, became mandatory challenger for the green and gold belt.
Hard-hitting IBF champion Masamichi Yabuki, meanwhile, is set to face seasoned veteran Felix Alvarado later this year after their matchup, which went to purse bids, was picked up by MP Promotions earlier this week.
