SAN ANTONIO – Khalil Coe resumed his knockout ways versus an opponent who’d never been stopped.
The unbeaten light heavyweight from Flemington, New Jersey scored two knockdowns en route to a third-round stoppage of Illinois’ James Quiter. Coe floored Quiter in the opening round and closed the show with a right uppercut in round three. The latter produced an instant stoppage at 1:51 of round three of their bout which aired on DAZN’s ‘Before the Bell’ preliminary show Saturday live from Boeing Center at Tech Port in San Antonio, Texas.
Coe (5-0-1, 3KOs) went the six-round distance in each of his past two starts, including a six-round shutout of unbeaten Bradley Olmeda last November 12 in his most recent start.
Quiter (6-2-1, 6KOs) was brought in as a late replacement when originally scheduled foe Aaron Spicer was forced to withdraw just ahead of fight week. He’d scored knockouts in every win and went the distance in a draw and his lone career defeat but was taken out by Coe in spectacular fashion.
Regionally based prospect Jesus Martinez failed to produce a win for the first time in his young career. The 18-year-old bantamweight—who is co-managed by Hall of Fame former two-division champ Joe Calzaghe and former middleweight titlist Darren Barker—was held to a four-round draw with Jose Lopez. Judge Dave Moretti (39-37) awarded three of the four rounds to Martinez (3-0-1, 1KO), while Sandio Caiz (4-2-2, 0KOs) had the same score for Lopez. Judge Ellis Johnson (38-38) had it even to produce the stalemate in the curtain raiser of Saturday’s eight-fight card.
Headlining the show, local hero Jesse ‘Bam’ Rodriguez (17-0, 11KOs) and Mexico’s Cristian Gonzalez (15-1, 6KOs) in a scheduled 12-round bout with the vacant WBO flyweight title at stake.
Jake Donovan is a senior writer for BoxingScene.com. Twitter: @JakeNDaBox