Liles Remains Undefeated With 3rd-Round Knockout

If there is a fighter in the world easier to beat up than the one Frank Liles found Tuesday night at the Country Club in Reseda, Liles would like to meet him.

And he would definitely like to fight him.

The undefeated Liles, of Sherman Oaks, notched his 18th victory with a brutal, three-round beating of Manuel Murillo of Miami in a scheduled eight-round light heavyweight bout.

Liles, 170, who left the Kronk Gym in Detroit and signed with the Ten Goose Boxing Club of Van Nuys earlier this year, handed Murillo an unmerciful thrashing from the opening bell, staggering him in the first and second rounds and finally knocking him down--and nearly through the ropes--with a five-punch combination in the third.

Referee Rudy Jordan stopped the bout at 2 minutes 56 seconds of the round without bothering to count over the fallen Murillo. It was Liles’ 10th knockout. Murillo, 172, fell to 10-9.

In the main event, Orlin Norris knocked out Lionel Washington at 1:25 of the first round in a scheduled 12-round bout for the state heavyweight title. Norris, the former North American Boxing Federation champion, is 29-2 with 15 knockouts. Washington is 11-9.

Norris knocked Washington down with a left hook and when Washington struggled to his feet, Norris ended it with a right to the chin. Washington was counted out.

Norris, of Campo, Calif., weighed 215. Washington, from Bakersfield, weighed 228.

In another light heavyweight bout, veteran Ramzi Hassan of San Diego pounded out a bloody, 10-round unanimous decision over Ivan Rukavina of Australia.

Hassan, 30-5, was bloodied over both eyes by the eighth round, but both cuts were the results of unintentional head butts by the bull-like Rukavina, who lost for the first time in seven bouts.

A scheduled six-round middleweight fight between Joey DeGrandis of Van Nuys and Ricky Sims of Los Angeles was cancelled when Sims failed to appear.

DeGrandis, 8-1, learned of the cancellation just minutes before the bout was to begin.