Bernaldez, Bacon destroy foes; Moralde loses by first round KO

CEBU, Philippines —  Lightweight prospect Mark “Machete” Bernaldez and welterweight James Bacon of Sanman Gym based in General Santos City easily dismantled their Argentine foes in the “Fight Night VIII” boxing show by M&R Promotions on Saturday night (Sunday morning Phl time) at the Manual Airtime Community Center Theater in Miami, Florida.

The 26-year-old Bernaldez scored three knockdowns en route to a methodical third-round stoppage of  Julian Evaristo “Chipita” Aristule.

Bernaldez downed Aristule in the first round with a right straight, and then in the second round with a left hook.  He delivered his coup de grace in round three, a powerful right straight to the head that knocked the lights out of Aristule.

“I really did not expect to finish him off early because he’s a veteran fighter and even willing to trade blows with me. I’m just fortunate that I hit my targets,” said Bernaldez, who improved his record to 21-4 now spiked with 15KOs. Aristule fell to 34-14 with 17KOs.

Bacon was similarly impressive, unleashing a flurry of body shots capped with a left uppercut that sent Gonzalo Carlos Dallera down at the seat of his pants for good late in the second round. Bacon now holds a 24-4 card with 16KOs while Gonzalo suffered his ninth defeat in 15 bouts with 4KOs.

Over at the MGM Grand bubble in Las Vegas, Bernaldez and Bacon’s Sanman stablemate in super featherweight contender John Vincent “Mulawin” Moralde was not as lucky, losing by first round knockout to Mexico’s Jose Enrique Vivas on the undercard of the Vasyl Lomachenko-Teofimo Lopez undisputed lightweight championship match.

In a report by Dong Secuya of Philboxing.com, the Davao City-native Moralde came in throwing nice jabs against Vivas from the onset but the Mexican forced his way inside.

Moralde tried to hold on Vivas but the Mexican connected with a left to the face that decked Moralde for the first time.

Smelling blood, Vivas pursued Moralde and landed two wicked body shots that sent the Pinoy bixer to the canvas for the second time. The referee immediately stopped the fight at 1:16 of round one upon seeing Moralde grimacing in pain.

Vivas thus raised his win-loss mark to 20-1 with 11KOs while Moralde dropped to 23-4 with 13KOs.