“We knew he was a difficult opponent, unbeaten like me,” Socarras said on his way to the dressing room. “We just went out and did our job in the third round.”

Socarras, who turns 20 on Jan. 29, burst onto the local fight scene with quick knockout wins in his first four career fights two years ago. But a promotional conflict limited Socarras to an abbreviated fight schedule last year.

“I need more fights, fighting more frequently is only going to help my development and work we need to do in the ring,” Socarras said. “Hopefully, we’re going to have that opportunity this year.”

Socarras built an early lead while connecting rights to the head. Bowles clinched repeatedly as he tried to cut down Socarras’ follow-up shots. But Bowles could not avoid the punch that ended his night and unblemished record.

“There was some anxiety in the first round because he was an awkward fighter,” Socarras said. “But after the first, I calmed down and took my time.”

The Socarras-Bowles was part of a seven-bout show that was headlined by a late Friday junior-lightweight bout between Miami resident Rances Barthelemy and Canada’s Arash Usmanee.

Another bout late Friday featured Puerto Rico’s Jonathan Gonzalez and Philadelphia Derek Ennis.

In other bouts: super-middleweight Roberto Acevedo scored a TKO over Francisco Rios at 1:02 of the first round; light-heavyweight Radivoje Kalajdzic won by unanimous decision over Grover Young; junior-welterweight Jeremy Bryan won a majority decision over Yuri Ramanau; heavyweight Keith Tapia knocked out Rafael Valenzuela at 2:29 of the first round.