At the end of preliminary bouts to set up the LSUBF Jr. Bantamweight tournament, the four contenders were Cristian Mijares (13-0, 5 KO), Luis Alberto Perez (14-1, 14 KO), Ivan Hernandez (13-2, 9 KO) and Jose Carita Lopez (10-0, 9 KO).

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Despite being the top seed, many people presumed Mijares would be unable to withstand Lopez's power in their semifinal matchup, while Perez and Hernandez drew little certainty except that it wouldn't go the distance.

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But Mijares stuck it to prognosticators, as Lopez never got anywhere near hurting him on his way to a blowout unanimous decision, 119-110 (x2), 118-111. Meanwhile, Perez pummeled Hernandez, dropping him three times in a dominant showing that was ended by the ref in the 10th.

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Mijares and Perez would meet for the title, and they met early in their careers with Mijares picking up a surprising third-round knockout win. The match to determined the first Jr. Bantamweight champ goes the same distance but with a different winner, as Perez dominates Mijares, cutting him in the first and knocking him down early in the third before a two-minute assault that leads to a stoppage with 12 seconds left in the third round to make Perez the champion!

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Since claiming the title in June 2009, Perez has been positively dominant, making 10 successful defenses of his title, beating Hernandez and Celes Kobayashi twice each, as well as Alexander Munoz, Lopez, Martin Castillo, Katsuhige Kawashima and most recently Nobuo Nashiro to wrap up 2012. 

He'll have a mandatory defense against the #1 contender in April, which at present stands to be Kobayashi, who took Perez the distance the first time before getting wiped out in the second round last April.  Perez has defeated 8 of the current Top 10 fighters in the division, missing only #4 Masanori Tokuyama and #9 Felix Machado.