Tapia KOs Bruce in second round

NEW YORK --Junior middleweight Glen Tapia dropped Ayi Bruce in the second and final round before pinning and pummeling him on the ropes, prompting referee David Fields to step in and end the fight at 2:33 on Saturday night at The Theatre at Madison Square Garden.

Tapia, of Passaic, N.J., rose to 17-0 with his 10th knockout, dropping Bruce, of Albany, N.Y., to 14-9 with eight stoppages.

Click here for Glen Tapia's video interview with RingTV.com's Ryan Songalia.

Tapia-Bruce was part of the nine-fight undercard of an HBO-televised triple-header topped by THE RING/WBO featherweight title bout between Orlando Salido and Miguel Angel "Mikey" Garcia.

In an earlier fight,  Canadian welterweight Mikael Zewski (18-0, 14 KOS) dropped Brandon Hoskins (16-4-1, 8 kOS) three times in the fourth and final round for the knockout in their scheduled six rounder. Zewski came up with his ninth straight knockout win.

In the first bout of the card, super middleweight prospect Ronald Ellis (7-0, 5 KOs), of Miami, scored a four-round unanimous decision over Steven Tyner (3-10-2, 2 KOs), of Akron, Ohio.

In the third fight, cruiserweight prospect Isa Akberbayev (11-0, 7 KOs), of Kazakhstan, was knocked cold and flat on his face at 1:19 of the 10th and final round by Philadelphia's Anthony Ferrante (13-4, 8 KOs), with whom he traded first-round knockdowns.

Ahead on all three judges' cards by scores of 88-83 (twice) and 87-84, Ferrante ended Akberbayev's streak of five consecutive knockouts.

Akberbayev had served as a sparring partner for Kazakhstan-born WBA middleweight titleholder Gennady Golovkin (24-0, 21 KOS), who is in pursuit of his 12th consecutive knockout win against rising junior middleweight Gabriel Rosado (21-5, 13 KOs) in the co-featured bout of the card.

Photo by Chris Farina, Top Rank

Lem Satterfield can be reached at lemuel.satterfield@gmail.com