Fighting a more controlled pace (14 of 56 punches landed per round), Emanuel Navarrete had a 131-58 edge in power landed vs. Ruben Villa, whose 73 landed jabs were the most by a Navarrete opponent.

Navarrete, who averaged 26 of 76 punches per round in his previous 7 fights, closed the show by landing/throwing fight high 29 of 80 punches in round 12. Villa was down twice in the fight.

New weight class, same buzzsaw. Former junior featherweight world champion Emanuel Navarrete defeated Ruben Villa via unanimous decision (115-111 and 114-112 2X) to win the vacant WBO featherweight world title Friday evening from the MGM Grand Las Vegas Conference Center.

Navarrete (33-1, 28 KOs), who made five defenses of his WBO junior featherweight world title, is now a two-weight world champion.

Navarrete knocked down Villa in the first and fourth rounds to build a healthy lead on the scorecards. Villa (18-1, 5 KOs), a slick southpaw boxer, did not have the power to keep the all-pressure Navarrete honest. He did, however, find a rhythm in the fight's closing stages and nearly did enough in the minds of the judges to salvage a draw.

Middleweight contender Janibek "Qazaq Style" Alimkhanuly brought the thunder. The 2016 Olympian improved to 9-0 with a devastating second-round knockout over Gonzalo Coria (16-4, 6 KOs), who had never been stopped as a professional. An overhand left from the southpaw knocked Coria down and nearly through the ropes. The full count was not needed, as Alimkhanuly upped his knockout streak to three.

Jr. Welterweight: Elvis Rodriguez  (10-0-1 10 KOs) KO 3 Cameron Krael (17-17-3, 4 KOs), :53. The most explosive prospect in boxing did it again. Rodriguez knocked out the durable Krael, scoring a pair of knockdowns in the third round. The second knockdown kept Krael on the canvas for the 10-count. Krael had only been knocked out once before. Rodriguez has four knockout victories since July 2, all in three rounds or less.