Salud Batters Zavala : Boxing: San Diegan wins NABF title when fight is stopped in the eighth round.

Jesus Salud’s trainer, Abel Sanchez, predicted Rudy Zavala would stand in with Salud for three rounds and then start running.

Zavala should have listened to Sanchez. He stood toe-to-toe with Salud for eight rounds and got hit with punches from every conceivable angle. When Zavala could no longer see out of his swollen left eye, ring doctor Robert Karns mercifully stopped the fight at 2:16 of the eighth round.

Salud’s victory, in front of 2,312 hometown fans Thursday at the Sports Arena, gives him the North American Boxing Federation junior featherweight title for the third time.

“The guy was strong, but I was surprised he stood in front of me,” Salud said. “He gave me a chance to throw all my combinations.”

There wasn’t much Salud didn’t throw at Costa Mesa’s Zavala (17-1-1). ESPN’s Punch Profile counted Salud throwing 855 punches and connecting on 385 for 45% accuracy. To Zavala, who landed 286 of 690 punches (41%), it must have seemed like 100% accuracy.

Salud (42-5, 22 knockouts) cut Zavala in the first round with a right uppercut and then appeared to open it up with an overhand right early in the fourth round. After a brief flurry by Zavala to open the fifth round, Salud began to punish Zavala with right uppercuts and overhand rights.

“After the fourth or fifth round, I couldn’t see,” said Zavala, who took 17 stitches over his eye after the fight. “But I wasn’t about to give up.”

But had the NABF not warned Herb Stone, Zavala’s manager, before the fight that throwing in the towel would result in a fine, Stone said he would have stopped the bout in the seventh round.

If he had it to do over, Stone also said he might not have put his 23-year-old into ring the against Salud, the 29-year-old former World Boxing Assn. champion.

“I am sorry now because of the result,” Stone said. “But Rudy Zavala has nothing to be ashamed about. Jesus was the better man tonight.”

Sanchez knew Salud would be.

“This kid is a good fighter, but he is too green,” Sanchez said.

Said Zavala: “I should have boxed him a little more. I was trying to circle him, but that was hard to do when I couldn’t see.”

Salud said having Sanchez in his corner made all the difference. Sanchez did not attend his last fight, a 12-round loss to Welcome N’Cita in April for the International Boxing Federation title.

“I was getting overanxious,” Salud said. “He told me to relax. I needed somebody to guide me in there.”

Said Sanchez: “I told you guys, I wouldn’t let him rest.”

Zavala didn’t rest much, either, except for a clinch late in the fifth round. Earlier in the round, Zavala had backed Salud into the corner with a barrage of punches.

“He was desperate at that time--his cut had just opened,” Salud said. “I was just covering up knowing he would run out of gas.”

Zavala kept throwing punches in the last three rounds, but they had lost their sting and their accuracy.

“I could tell I was going to get this guy,” Salud said.

At Tuesday’s press conference, Zavala said Salud had seen better days. What did he think afterward?

“He still has some left in him,” Zavala said.

Bob DePhilippis, Salud’s manager, said he will try to get Salud a WBC title shot.

“He beat the No. 1 contender, why shouldn’t he become the No. 1 contender?” DePhilippis said.

Boxing Notes

In the undercard, junior welterweight Vince Phillips of Las Vegas raised his record to 26-0 with a sixth-round knockout of Juan Soberans (39-11) of Tijuana. Phillips floored Soberans in the fourth with a straight right to the jaw, then finished him almost exactly the same punch to record his 18th knockout.

Lightweight Didier Hughes of San Diego (7-0-1) won a unanimous eight-round decision over Jaime Castillo (10-6-1) of Los Angeles. Junior featherweight Boni Lara (4-1) of Los Angeles knocked out Martin Rea (3-1) of San Diego. Welterweight Vidal Rodriguez (11-0) of Las Vegas won a unanimous six-round decision over Mario Florio (11-5) of Port Hueneme. Los Angeles super flyweight Elio Dominguez (12-4) upset Miguel Martinez (23-5 and ranked sixth by the IBF) of San Diego, knocking him out at 2:01 of the second round.