By Francisco Salazar

Junior flyweight contender Felix Alvarado knocked out Jose Antonio Jimenez in the opening round late Friday night at the Gimnasio Rosendo Alvarez in his hometown of Managua, Nicargua.

Alvarado improves to 29-2, with 25 KOs, while Jimenez falls to 18-7-1, with 8 KOs.

The 28-year-old Alvarado knocked out Jimenez at 2:00 of the first round.

Jimenez, who resides in Maguangue, Colombia, challenged and lost to IBF World minimumweight titleholder Jose Argumedo on November 12. He has now lost two of his last three fights.

Alvarado has won his last 11 bouts since suffering back-to-back losses to Kazuto Ioka and Juan Carlos Reveco. Including Friday's fight, Alvarado has already fought five times in 2017, winning all those bouts by knockout.

Alvarado is ranked in the top 10 by all four major sanctioning bodies. He is ranked as high as number five by both the WBC and IBF.

Other fighters, both contenders or prospects who reside in Nicaragua, were also successful inside the ring Friday night.

Former featherweight contender Rene Alvarado (25-8, with 17 KOs) knocked out Moises Oliva (8-8, with 4 KOs) at 50 seconds of the second round.

Former world minimumweight titleholder Byron Rojas (19-3-3, with 9 KOs) won by knockout when Juan Luis Lopez (15-6, with 9 KOs) of Mexico did not come out for the seventh round.

Former world flyweight title challenger Keyvin Lara (21-2-1, with 6 KOs) won a hard-fought eight round decision over Luis Singo (20-13-2, with 9 KOs) of Ecuador. Lara, who is ranked number nine by the WBO, has won his last three bouts.

Hard-hitting welterweight Roberto Arriaza knocked out Francisco Cordero (37-8, with 28 KOs) of Colombia at 1:25 of the first round. Arriaza goes to 15-0, with 12 KOs.

Francisco A. Salazar has written for Boxingscene.com since September of 2012 and has covered boxing in Southern California and abroad since 2000. Francisco also covers boxing for the Ventura County (Calif.) Star newspaper, RingTV.com, and Knockout Nation. He can be reached by email at santio89@yahoo.com or on Twitter at FSalazarBoxing