WASHINGTON – Vito Mielnicki Jr. produced the knockout he sought Saturday night on the Gervonta Davis-Hector Luis Garcia undercard.
The 20-year-old Mielnicki stopped Omar Rosales early in the fourth round of a 10-round junior middleweight match at Capital One Arena. Mielnicki recorded a knockdown late in the third round and went after Rosales as soon as the fourth round began.
Referee Dave Braslow halted the action just 26 seconds into the fourth round, with Rosales still on his feet.
Mielnicki (14-1, 9 KOs), of Roseland, New Jersey, has won six straight fights since Philadelphia’s James Martin (then 6-2) upset him by majority decision in an eight-round bout at Shrine Auditorium & Expo Hall in Los Angeles. Houston’s Rosales (9-2-1, 5 KOs) has lost two of his last three bouts by knockout.
After scoring a knockdown just before the third round ended, Mielnicki caught Rosales with flush power punches early in the fourth round. Rosales didn’t go down, but Braslow didn’t like his body language after absorbing those punches and stopped their fight.
Mielnicki drilled Rosales with a right hand that forced Rosales to use the second rope to hold himself up with just under 10 seconds on the clock in the third round. That counted as a knockdown, but the bell rang before Mielnicki could follow up.
Two left hooks by Mielnicki moved Rosales into the ropes about 40 seconds into the third round.
Mielnicki nailed Rosales with a right hand that made Rosales lose his footing with just under 25 seconds to go in the second round.
Rosales’ right hand landed with 1:20 to go in the second round. About 25 seconds later, Mielnicki landed a low left hand that caused a brief break in the action.
Mielnicki caught Rosales with a right uppercut when there were about 50 seconds to go in the opening round. Mielnicki mostly worked off his jab in the opening round
Keith Idec is a senior writer/columnist for BoxingScene.com. He can be reached on Twitter @Idecboxing.