WBA #5, IBF #13 bantamweight Melvin “Melo” Lopez (21-1, 12 KOs) of Nicaragua (now based in Miami) was upset by veteran Jose Velasquez (27-6-2, 19 KOs) of Chile on Friday night at the Miami-Dade County Fair & Expo in Miami, Florida.

Lopez held his own in the fight and showed a lot of heart before a sudden ending in round nine where he suffered two knockdowns seconds apart. The referee waved the fight off after the second knockown at 1:58 of round nine. It was the first loss for the William Ramirez (WRAM Boxing) managed “Melo,” while Velasquez, who was 4-5-2 early in his career, has won 19 straight with 16 KOs in that span and now holds the WBO intercontinental bantamweight title.

Former two-time cruiserweight world title challenger Francisco Palacios (24-4, 15 KOs) had his first bout in more than three years, stopping journeyman Mariano Jose Riva (14-7, 8 KOs) of Argentina by TKO in round one of a scheduled six round cruiserweight bout.

Lightweight Josec “Escorpion” Ruiz (21-2-3, 14KOs) of Miami by way of Honduras dominated the action before Ramon “Correntino” de la Cruz Sena (23-26-3, 13KOs) of Argentina was disqualified in round 6 of a scheduled for 8 round bout.

Rounding out the undercard:

Anthony “Bang” Williams TKO 1 Daulis Prescott 8 rds lightweights

Ulysses “Monster” Diaz 185 TKO 1 Israel Echevarria 184 8 rds cruiserweights

Alexei”Hurricane” Collado KO 3 Matias “Huracan” Agustin Arriagada 8 rounds featherweights

Mike “Magic” Plania TKO 4 Julio “Halconcito” Buitrago 8 rds featherweights

Samuel “Unbelievable” Kotey Neequaye TKO 2 Sergio “Terrible” Gomez 6 rds Welterweights

Matteo “Cyborg” Papa winner via DQ 2 Harrison Melendez 4 rds super middleweights

Franky “Franky JR” Diaz TKO 1 Juan Bryand 4 rds super featherweights

Jake Bostick and Steven Kirnon majority draw. official scores 39-37 and 38-38 2x 4 rds heavyweights

The event was promoted by M&R Boxing Promotions – Laura Ching.