Middleweight contender Connor Coyle remained unbeaten Saturday night, defeating late-sub Cristian Rios by decision over 10 one-sided rounds at the Hilton Carillon in Saint Petersburg, Florida.
All three judges scored the bout 100-90 in favor of Coyle, who improved to 19-0, 8 knockouts.
Coyle was the busier and more-effective fighter, utilizing accurate combinations to the head and body of Rios. Despite Coyle connecting to the head with several straight right hands, Rios took the punches well and did not look visibly hurt.
Rios fought in spurts during the middle rounds, but looked in survival mode as the fight progressed into the second round, relegating to throwing one punch at a time.
Coyle won a regional title belt with the win.
The 32-year-old, who is originally from Derry, Northern Ireland and now resides in Pinellas Park, Florida, was first scheduled to fight Fernando Farias, who, like Rios, is a resident of Buenos Aires, Argentina. Farias withdrew from the fight for unspecified reasons. Rios took the fight late last week.
In his previous fight on December 11, Coyle won by knockout after Sladan Janjanin did not answer the bell for round 8. He is currently ranked No. 4 by the WBA.
Rios drops to 23-18-3, 7 KOs. The 39-year-old has lost eight of his last nine bouts.
Fringe lightweight contender William Silva of Sao Paulo, Brazil improved to 30-4, 18 KOs, stopping Argentina’s Diego Luque (21-12-2, 10 KOs) at 2:21 of the opening bout.
Junior welterweight Joseph Fernandez of Saint Petersburg knocked out Massachusetts’ Marcus Bates (11-6, 8 KOs) at 1:44 of the fourth round. Fernandez (16-5-3, 6 KOs) has now split his last four bouts.
Unbeaten light heavyweight Imran Haddabah (9-0, 7 KOs), another resident of Saint Petersburg, made quick work of Scott Lampert (5-8, 4 KOs) of Dover Plains, New York, winning by knockout at 2:32 of the first round.
Francisco A. Salazar has written for BoxingScene since September 2012 and has covered boxing in Southern California and abroad since 2000. Francisco also covers boxing for the Ventura County (California) Star newspaper. He can be reached by email at santio89@yahoo.com or on Twitter at FSalazarBoxing