Wednesday Night Fights Recap - Jose Armando Santa Cruz vs. Miguel Munguia and More

Tonight's Wednesday Night Fights telecast from California features two fighters who are looking to get back in the world title picture: Jose Armando Santa Cruz and Jeff Lacy. The announce team begins with a recap on the health of Oscar Diaz, who is in critical but stable condition following emergency brain surgery after his brutal knockout at the hands of Delvin Rodriguez last Wednesday.

Munguia gives away quite a bit of height and reach and took the fight on shirt notice, so we'll see if he has anything for Santa Cruz. He certainly looks game for a guy who's lost 12 of his last 14, coming forward steadily. Munguia goes crazy with volume and Santa Cruz covers up and rides out the storm.

Joel Casamayor is ringside checking out the action. Munguia threw over 100 punches in the first round but the computer stats say he landed only ten. Santa Cruz is clearly throwing the harder punches and he's starting to find the range in the second round. Some vicious combos start to land late in the second round, but Munguia makes it out in one piece.

Teddy Atlas already thinks we may be seeing the beginning of the end, though you have to give Munguia credit for continuing to hang tough and wing body shots at Santa Cruz. Unless something surprising happens and JASC gets caught, it feels like only a matter of time until he gets the KO.

No big developments in the fourth round as Santa Cruz lands some nice counters over his opponent's jab and dominates in number of punches landed. Munguia is starting to bleed as well.

The fifth round sees the end for Munguia as Santa Cruz jumps in and lands a vicious video game-style left to the body that crumples his foe. It's a knockout, coming at 0:42 of the fifth round.

Next up is undefeated prospect Danny Jacobs taking on Sergio Rios. Jacobs is a 21-year old from Brooklyn who came up just short of making the U.S. Olympic team. He is 7-0 with every win coming by KO. Atlas says he has been in soft so far and is again tonight.

Jacobs starts cautiously but shows great hand speed and a variety of punches that he throws in combinations. Rios goes down after a flurry and makes no effort to get back to his feet. Looks like a right that softened him up and a left-right combo that finished him. Jacobs wins by KO at 2:46 of the first round.

Yet another undefeated prospect is in action in the next undercard fight. Carlos Velasquez - whose twin brother is also an unbeaten up-and-comer - is 7-0 with six knockouts. He's in against David Vasquez, who took the fight on three days notice. Vasquez hasn't won since February of 2000.

Vasquez is bleeding early, but the ref says it's from an accidental clash of heads. Velasquez looks comfortable in the first round, but he really cranks it up in the second. A left hook to the head has Vasquez wobbly, and Velasquez just continues to land undefended shots to the head and body until the ref says enough. A looping right was the icing on the cake. Velasquez takes it by KO at 1:12 of the second round.

This week's edition of Ringside Remembers focuses on Liston-Patterson II. Unfortunately, technical difficulties knock out the video twice and we don't get to see it. Atlas fills by talking about famous first round knockouts in the heavyweight division, including Tyson-Spinks, Marciano-Walcott II, Flynn-Dempsey, Clay-Liston II and Louis-Schmeling II.