LEMOORE -- Edison Miranda didn't waste his second shot at the North American Boxing Organization's super middleweight title.
In fact, the fighter from Buenaventura, Colombia, didn't even waste any time making it happen.
Miranda delivered a wicked overhand right that landed on the back of Francisco Sierra's head, dropping him to the canvas 2:16 into their main event fight Thursday night at the Tachi Palace Hotel & Casino.
Referee Dan Stell immediately signaled the fight over, giving Miranda the vacant title.
"I expected it sometime in rounds one, two or three," Miranda said through an interpreter of the knockout, the 29th of his 37-fight career. "I was waiting for him to make an error to throw my punch."
Miranda (33-4 and ranked ninth by the World Boxing Council) had caught Sierra (Mexico's super middleweight champion, who is now 20-3) with a powerful right to the head seconds before the final blow. As Sierra was trying to duck Miranda's next punch, it landed square and that was the end of it.
Miranda lost a 12-round decision to Andre Ward in May for a belt Ward later vacated.
Quezada: 18 straight wins
Manuel Quezada had to work a lot harder to earn his paycheck this time.
After scoring a first-round knockout of highly touted Travis Walker in his previous bout, Wasco native Quezada went the distance in retaining his WBC Caribbean heavyweight title with a unanimous 98-92, 97-93, 99-91 victory over Nicolai Firtha.
The Walker victory catapulted Quezada to No. 4 in the WBC's heavyweight rankings, and he certainly looked like a marked man against Firtha.
"I had a feeling it wasn't going to be as easy a fight as last time," said Quezada, 29-4 with 18 straight wins. "People are starting to know me and come ready to fight me."
Quezada controlled the fight, landing punches just as vicious as the one that floored Walker, but Firtha never went down.
"I hit him with some good shots. My right hand is sore," Quezada said. "I was surprised he stayed up."
Alafa wins
Visalia's Aaron Alafa returned to the ring after a long layoff and defeated Danny Pontoja in a four-round super bantamweight bout. Alafa won a split decision -- 38-37, 37-38, 39-37 -- despite having a third-round knockdown ruled against him that he said was a slip.
"I knew I had to keep my composure and not let it affect me," said Alafa, now 3-1.
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