Laredo Energy Arena in Laredo, Texas - In a WBC super middleweight eliminator, David Benavidez (18-0, 17 KOs) continued his path of destruction with an eight round knockout over battle tested Rogelio “Porky” Medina (37-8, 31 KOs), who went down three times in the fight.
Medina was a step up in class from former Benavidez opponents, but it didn't make a difference as the 20-year-old rising contender dominated the entire fight with hard shots.
He scored knockdowns in the sixth, seventh and closed the show in the eight round. It was the first knockout defeat for Medina since a 2013 TKO defeat at the hands of former world champion Badou Jack.
Benavidez is now in line for a world title shot. The WBC title is vacant and will be up for grabs in September when Callum Smith and Anthony Dirrell collide for the belt in Los Angeles.
At just 20-years-old and fighting out of Phoenix, Benavidez picked up four victories via stoppage in 2015 and continued with four more in 2016 including blasting out previously unbeaten Francy Ntetu in June and tough contender Denis Douglin in August. Most recently, Benavidez began his 2017 campaign with a second-round destruction of Sherali Mamajonov in January.
Medina is a hard-hitting veteran, with his biggest win to date being a shocking third round knockout of then unbeaten J'Leon Love in 2014 and last year he exceeded expectations by giving world champion James DeGale all he could handle in a 12-round matchup before ultimately dropping a decision. Prior to DeGale.
In the PBC on FS1 televised co-feature, unbeaten featherweight contender Jorge Lara (29-0-2, 21 KOs) stopped Mario Briones (28-6-2, 22 KOs) in three rounds. Lara controlled the fight from the first bell, dropping Briones in round two and then continued to dish out the punishment in the third round until the referee had seen enough and waved off the fight.