BOXING ROUNDUP : Rosario Stops Garza, Takes Title

Edwin Rosario of Puerto Rico scored a third-round technical knockout to win the World Boxing Assn. junior welterweight title from Loreto Garza Friday night in Sacramento.

Rosario (37-4) knocked Garza down twice in the first round and twice more in the third before referee Larry Rozadilla stopped the fight with 1:09 left in the round.

The title was the fourth won by Rosario, who weighed 139 1/2 pounds. Garza, 139, of Sacramento, fell to 28-2-1. He was making his second defense of the title.

Rosario is expected to fight next this fall against Hector Camacho, who took the WBC lightweight title from Rosario in June of 1986.

In a 10-round lightweight bout on the pay-per-view television card, Jorge Paez defeated Tracy Spann by majority decision.

Paez (37-4-3) was knocked down in the third round by a sharp left hand by Spann (26-1) and then cut on the corner of the right eye by a left hook. Paez also had a point deducted in the sixth round by referee Terry Smith for consistently holding his left hand in the face of Spann. However, Paez continued to pressure Spann and had the left-hander in trouble in the final two rounds.

Daniel Zaragoza of Mexico won a split decision to dethrone champion Kiyoshi Hatanaka at Nagoya, Japan, to win the World Boxing Council super bantamweight title, his third world crown.

Hatanaka was the aggressor for the first three rounds but slowed down after his left eyebrow was cut in the fourth. Zaragoza set the pace for the remainder of the 12-round fight.

Zaragoza, 121 3/4, improved to 42-5-1. Hatanaka, 122, is 22-1-1.

Former WBA lightweight champion Livingston Bramble ended a two-fight losing streak with a seventh-round knockout of Roger Brown at Tampa, Fla.

Bramble (31-5-2) caught Brown (16-14) with a looping right hand as Brown came off the ropes. The knockout, the 20th of Bramble’s career, came with 45 seconds left in the round.