Photo by David Algranati/TheFightPhotos

Euri Cedeno needed just one round to finish Ulices Tovar on Friday night at Wind Creek Events Center in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania.

After the fight, the 2020 Dominican Olympian Cedeno stated that he believes he will fight for a title within a year.

Cedeno, a southpaw who fights in the middleweight division, showed off his pedigree as he landed thudding right hooks and straight left hands, pushing back Tovar early in the first round. 

Tovar, a 25-year-old pressure fighter from Guanajuato, Mexico, kept coming forward, but that just allowed the sharpshooter and power-puncher Cedeno to land clean and accurate punches. The end of the fight came when Cedeno landed a left uppercut and looked to follow it with a right hook that missed. Cedeno followed the combination with a straight left hand to Tovar’s face which forced him to collapse to his back as referee Harvey Dock counted him out. The time of the stoppage was 2:35.

After the fight, Cedeno stated a timeline for when he will fight for a title. 

“I say six months,” Cedeno said via translator. “I am putting everybody on notice between 154 and 160lbs. Everybody that holds the title, know you’re on notice.” 

“I agree with him,” Marshall Kauffman, Cedeno’s promoter, said after the fight about his timeline to fight for a title. 

Cedeno is on a four-fight knockout streak and holds a record of 11-0-1 (10 KOs). Tovar falls to 11-2 (7 KOs).

Junior welterweight Bryce Mills of Liverpool, New York won an eight-round unanimous decision over 35-year-old veteran Alex Martin of Hammond, Indiana. The scores were 77-75, 78-74 and 77-74. Mills, 23, now holds a record of 18-1 (6 KOs) and is on a 12-fight win streak. Martin has now lost three fights in a row and falls to 18-7 (6 KOs).

Lightweight Joseph Adorno of Allentown, Pennsylvania scored a third-round technical knockout over Wesley Rivers of Dearborn Heights, Michigan in a bout scheduled for eight rounds. The time of the stoppage is 2:02. Adorno, 25, now improves to 21-4-2 (18 KOs), while Rivers falls to 8-6 (3 KOs).

Lucas Ketelle is the author of “Inside the Ropes of Boxing,” a guide for young fighters, a writer for BoxingScene and a member of the Boxing Writers Association of America. Find him on X at @BigDogLukie.