Alexis Rocha (22-1, 14 KOs) scored one of his most spectacular knockouts of his career Saturday night at Inglewood’s YouTube Theater and moved closer to a title fight for the World Boxing Organization welterweight crown. In the possession of Terence “Bud” Crawford.
A right hook from Rocha sent Ghana’s George Ashie to the canvas, resulting in an immediate seventh-round knockout in the main bout of the first night of boxing at the YouTube Theater in Inglewood, California. Rocha had already dropped his opponent once in the third round before the mammoth knockout.
Referee Thomas Taylor didn’t even bother to count as Ashie was unconscious and not moving a muscle. Taylor stopped the bout at 2:08 of the seventh.
The feat extended Rocha’s current six-win streak, his last five in Southern California and all in the last 14 months.
“Crawford is the next fight I want, come on,” Rocha insisted during his post-fight interview. “Everyone always asks me if I’m ready. I won’t know until I’m in there with him. I’m ready for the big names. I know whoever I fight, I’m going to go up every level, every step.”
“Crawford is next. But if it can’t be, I want all the big names. I have signed a contract with the best promotion company in the world and I know they will get it. He [Ashie] I was a tough boxer, but I knew I wasn’t going to be able to beat me,” Rocha said.
At the same show, Floyd “Kid Austin” Schofield (13-0, 10 KOs), of Austin, Texas, added rounds to his resume in a 10-round bout that went the distance against Alberto Mercado (17-4- 2, 4 KOs), from Humacao, Puerto Rico, for the vacant World Boxing Association lightweight international title. The three judges scored the bout 100-89, and Schofield took home the new belt.
