Jones Rocks Vazquez’s World to Earn Decision

Junior middleweight contender “Rockin” Rodney Jones rocked journeyman Luis Vazquez all night long, winning a lopsided 10-round decision in Monday’s main event at the Arrowhead Pond in front of an announced crowd of 3,255.

Jones (20-2) started slowly, but took control in the middle rounds and had Vazquez (28-16) of Culiacan, Mexico, hanging on as the final bell sounded.

“I was trying to see if I could put him away,” said Jones, who has won 15 consecutive fights. “I really wanted the knockout in the last round. It just didn’t happen. He was one tough dude.”

But Jones was the tougher fighter Monday, winning easily on all three scorecards, 98-92, 98-91 and 100-90.

“I was trying to mix it up, trying to get through his guard,” said Jones, who trains in Campo, a small town 60 miles east of San Diego. “So I threw a lot of different kinds of left hands. My left uppercut was my most successful punch.”

A wicked left uppercut knocked out Vazquez’s mouthpiece in the 10th round, but Vazquez somehow stayed up. He actually came back and delivered a few solid right hands late in the 10th, but that did little more than keep referee Lou Moret from stopping the fight.

Jones, 29, ranked second by the World Boxing Organization, said he hopes his performance is good enough to earn him a world title fight.

“I’d like to fight Yory Boy Campos or Keith Mullings,” Jones said.

In the semi-main event, junior middleweight Pat Coleman (25-5, 19 knockouts) of San Diego scored a third-round technical knockout over an overmatched Eric Vazquez of Neuvo Laredo, Mexico. Vazquez, who has lost seven of his last eight fights by knockout, never had a chance against the hard-hitting Coleman.

Every time Vazquez tried to land a left hand, Coleman was ready with a straight right hand for Vazquez’s jaw.

Coleman nearly had Vazquez down in the first round. In the third, he opened up a cut over Vazquez’s right eye and the fight was mercifully stopped by referee Gwen Adair on the advice of ringside physician Adam Karnes with one minute 33 seconds left in the round.

Junior middleweight James “Baby Tyson” Brock (4-3-1) of Inglewood opened the night with a vicious second-round knockout of Huntington Beach’s Marcio Da Silva Castilho (2-4-1).

Brock put Castilho down early in the second round, then finished him off with a looping left hook and an overhand right that connected solidly to Castilho’s jaw. With Castilho sprawled out on the ropes, Brock gave him an overhand right to the back of his head.

He celebrated his victory by doing back flips in the center of ring.