“The Big Steppa” came into the home country of the only pro to beat him and stepped all over him.
Khalil Coe earned a satisfying measure of revenge on Friday, punishing Manuel Gallegos and forcing him to retire on his stool after the fifth round at Domo Alcalde in Guadalajara, Mexico.
Coe, 10-1-1 (7 KOs), was able to regroup following his ninth round TKO loss to Gallegos, 21-3-1 (18 KOs), mostly using his jab to rearrange the face of his rival.
Gallegos came in with the same game plan as the first fight, putting pressure on Coe, while Coe took advantage of Gallegos’ straight-ahead movement to land heavy jabs. One of those jabs drew a heavy flow of blood from Gallegos’ nose while others swelled up the right side of his face. Another jab in the second hurt Gallegos and sent him backwards before a significant power punch had yet to land. Coe began to walk Gallegos down in the third, which gave Gallegos a chance to land left hooks to the body near the end of the round.
After softening his opponent with the jab, Coe began to bring the right hand behind it, while avoiding the amateurish swings from his opponent. Coe added on to his success in the fifth by bringing hooks behind the jab, while overhand rights knocked blood from Gallegos’ face to his chest.
The official time of stoppage was one second of the sixth round, as Gallegos’ corner refused to let their fighter off the stool.
Coe said afterwards that the primary difference between this fight and their first meeting is that he didn’t have to contend with Rhabdomyolysis, a debilitating medical condition that is associated with over-training.
“Flat out I just wasn’t sick. Last fight I was dealing with a lot of internal problems. I was hospitalized twice before my last fight. That pretty much made the difference,” said the 28-year-old Coe of Jersey City, New Jersey, who had added popular Philadelphia trainer Rashiem “Rell” Jefferson to his camp for this fight.
“This camp, no problems all the way through. One hundred percent Coe, and y’all see what happened.”
Coe, perhaps galvanized by the most disciplined performance of his career thus far, offered a warning message to the rest of the light heavyweight division as his parting statement.
“Watch your mouth when you speak on me. That’s all I’m gonna say,” said Coe.
The Manuel Medina who stepped into the ring on Friday night may not have been the former world champion known as “Mantecas,” but the 24-year-old from Zapopan, Mexico turned in the kind of high-volume output that would have made his namesake proud.
In the end, his efforts were spoiled by the three judges at ringside.
Gollaz, 31-4-1 (17 KOs), won a ten-round unanimous decision by scores of 98-94 on one card and 96-94 on the other two. The judging in his hometown of Guadalajara bailed out the junior welterweight from what would have been a career-derailing loss to Medina, 7-4-3 (5 KOs).
Gollaz, 30, was coming off a punishing stoppage loss to Subriel Matias exactly 90 days ago in a title eliminator, and by the looks of it, could have used a bit more time to recover. Gollaz appeared sluggish throughout while Medina – a 12-bout amateur veteran competing in his first ever ten-rounder – used angles and combinations to befuddle Gollaz, often outlanding him five punches to one.