by Francisco Salazar

Jose Argumedo stopped Gabriel Mendoza of Colombia in round eight to successfully defend his IBF World minimumweight title Saturday night at the Estudio 4 de Azteca Noreste in Monterrey, Nuevo Leon, Mexico.

With the win, Argumedo improves to 20-3-1, with 12 KOs. Mendoza falls to 28-5-2, with 23 KOs.

Argumedo, who hails from Tepic, Nayarit, Mexico, has successfully defended his IBF title three times since winning the title from Katsunari Takayama in December of 2015. Mendoza entered the bout against Argumedo having won six bouts in a row, all against mediocre opposition.

Argumedo landed the more telling blows throughout the fight, repeatedly scoring with right hands to the head of Mendoza. Mendoza hung in tough, occasionally scoring with left hooks to the head.

As the bout progressed, Argumedo varied his attack, scoring with uppercuts and left hooks to the body.

The end came in round eight when a right hand by Argumedo opened a cut over the left eye of Mendoza. Referee Vincent Accoo waved the fight over when the ringside physician ruled the cut was too deep to allow Mendoza to continue.

Argumedo has now won his last six bouts.

In junior bantamweight action, Genaro Rios won a one-sided six round decision over Emmanuel Zuniga (3-11, with 1 KO). All three judges scored the bout 60-54 in favor of Rios, who improves to 7-8, with 1 KO.

Featherweight Christopher Lopez (5-0, with 4 KOs) stopped Luis Angel Baltazar, who was making his pro debut, at 2:46 of the opening round.

Junior middleweight Sergio Gonzalez (5-4, with 2 KOs) dropped Ricardo Escajedo (4-14-1, with 2 KOs) in round one en route to a six round unanimous decision victory. Scores were 59-54, 59-54, and 59-55 in favor of Gonzalez, who was dropped in round three. 

Featherweight Jose Juan Estrada (1-1, with 1 KO) knocked out Misael Guillen (0-2-2) at 2:26 of the first round.

Lightweight Rutilo Romero (7-3-2, with 3 KOs) knocked out Francisco Coronado (1-9-4) in the opening round.

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