Felix Alvarado was just too strong for Dee-jay Kriel.
Alvarado put Kriel down twice and stopped him in the 10th round to retain his junior flyweight title on the Ryan Garcia-Luke Campbell card Saturday at American Airlines Center in Dallas.
Alvarado (33-8, 22 KOs) attacked Kriel (16-2-1, 8 KOs) with abandon from the opening bell, firing — and landing — hard, accurate shots that eventually wore down the South African challenger.
Kriel went down from left hooks in the second and fourth rounds, although he wasn’t terribly hurt either time.
Kriel, a former 105-pound titleholder fighting for the second time at 108, rallied in the middle rounds. He did his best to move away from trouble and picked up his work rate, which made the fight competitive for a while.
However, Alvarado, from Nicaragua, kept coming.
The beginning of the end came late in Round 9, when Kriel began to wilt under a flurry of big punches but survived. Alvarado continued the onslaught in Round 10, landing a series of punishing blows to the head. Finally, a big right, followed by a few more punches, stunned Kriel and prompted the referee to stop the fight.
The official time was 1:39 of the 10th round.
Alvarado’s twin brother, Rene, was scheduled to fight Roger Gutierrez immediately after his victory over Kriel.
