Super lightweight Jorge Linares (45-4 28KOs) fighting at a 137 lbs. catchweight stopped Abner Cotto (23-4 12KOs) in the third round of the scheduled 12-round bout from the Fantasy Springs Resort in Indio, Ca, streaming worldwide on Facebook Watch. Linares showed separation from Cotto as he stayed composed outboxed before landing a straight right hand when Cotto kept his lead left-hand low after a jab, that sent Cotto to the mat.

The third round saw Cotto get reintroduced to the mat when Linares threw a flurry of punches and stepped in hard with his right hand sending Cotto down. The end of the fight was odd as both fighters hit the canvas with the commission calling a halt to the bout since Cotto couldn’t regain balance.

A terrific bounce-back fight for Linares, who is coming off a knockout loss to Vasyl Lomachenko, in which he lost his WBA lightweight world championship.

“I am ready…now I feel better at 140, I am ready for the big fight!” Linares said.  “I want to fight Mikey Garcia, WBC super lightweight world champion Jose Ramirez and maybe next year rematch [Vasyl] Lomachenko

Lightweight Romero Duno (18-1, 14 KOs) scored an eight round unanimous decision over Ezequiel Avilez (16-3-3, 6 KOs) Duno dropped Avilez at the end of round one, twice more in round six, and had Avilez out on his feet at the final bell. Scores were 78-71 on all three cards.

Super welterweight Travell “Black Magic” Mazion (14-0, 12 KOs) knocked out Alan Zaval (15-3, 13 KOs) with a left hook in the very first round. The time was 2:39.

Lightweight Oscar Duarte (15-0, 10 KOs) stopped Roger Gutierrez (19-4-1, 16 KOs) when Gutierrez refused to answer the bell for the fifth-round. Gutierrez lost two points in round four for a headbutt, as it was obvious the end was near.

Lightweight Elnur Abduraimov (1-0 1KO) made a terrific professional debut with a first-round knockout of Aaron Hollis with the time of the stoppage being 1:44.