Plenty had changed since Cain Sandoval last graced the ring.

Shortly after stopping Romero Duno in August, the junior welterweight contender discovered his daughter was battling leukemia.

Amidst the unknown, the 22-year-old Sandoval relocated from Sacramento to Southern California and linked up with coach Freddie Roach, and was immediately exposed to Hall of Fame quality training and world-class sparring against the likes of Devin Haney.

Add the fact that “Sugar” Cain had grown sour that he’d been snubbed off some notable Prospect of the Year lists, and Sandoval (15-0, 13 KOs) unleashed his pent-up aggression against Mark Bernaldez (25-7, 18 KOs) on Friday at the Chumash Casino in Santa Ynez, California, scoring a crushing fourth-round knockout win.

Sandoval outworked Bernaldez with an offensive barrage of combinations and body blows, and the one-way action culminated with a detonating right hand to the chin of the Filipino. The frustrated Bernaldez pounded his gloves on the canvas and failed to get up, as referee Rudy Barragan counted to ten and waved off the fight at the 34-second mark of the fourth.

“Machete” Bernaldez looked dull in the axing; he came into the clash following a 28-month layoff against an ascending contender eight years his junior.

“There was a lot of emotion going into this fight, and you saw the Sugar show today,” said Sandoval. “It’s already written. I’m going to be great. My team is leading my career the right way, and I am more than grateful.”

Sandoval vs. Bernaldez headlined a 360 Promotions show by Tom Loeffler on UFC Fight Pass.

In the co-main event, Daniel Barrera came into his showcase attraction looking to further make a name for himself, but "Chucky" got a nightmare instead courtesy of a script-altering ending from Cristopher Rios.

Barrera (8-1-1, 4 KOs) was upset and suffered the first loss of his career due to a pressure-packed, fast-and-furious pace from the swarming Rios (11-2, 7 KOs).

Judges scored the entertaining eight-round junior bantamweight bout 79-73 and 79-73 in favor of Rios, while the third judge had it 76-76.

The hard-charging Rios was rightfully awarded the majority decision win because he took Barrera out of his game by pressuring him with an all-out offensive attack that never let off.

The uber-competitive Rios came into the clash having suffered the lone losses of his career in his most recent two fights, one by a split decision, the other by a majority decision.

Gor Yeritsyan made minced meat of Luis Hernandez Ramos, dropping and stopping the Mexican in two rounds.

Yeritsyan landed a crushing right hand to the head of Hernandez Ramos that scrambled his senses and had him on skates, and then he followed with an onslaught that dropped him. Once Hernandez Ramos got back up, Yeritsyan (20-1, 16 KOs), a 30-year-old Armenian trained by Hall of Fame coach Freddie Roach, went on a full-on attack until referee Rudy Barragan stepped in and stopped the action at the 2:11 mark.

Hernandez Ramos (23-7, 20 KOs) has now lost seven of his last nine fights dating back to 2021 after starting his career 21-0.

The “Baby Face Assassin” Guadalupe Medina (9-0, 2 KOs) gained valuable experience in the first eight-round fight of her career and maintained her undefeated record against Agustina Vazquez (4-3-2, 0 KOs), scoring a unanimous decision via scores of 79-73 across the cards in a minimumweight matchup.

Twenty-one-year-old junior lightweight prospect Abel Mejia (7-0, 5 KOs) dropped Alfredo Diaz (9-11, 8 KOs) with a devastating left hook in the fourth round and cruised to a dominant unanimous decision win in their six-round fight via scores 60-53 across the cards.

Alan Garcia (15-1, 11 KOs) kicked off the card and scored a shutout six-round unanimous decision win against journeyman Juan Centeno (8-19-4, 1 KO) via scores of 60-54 across the cards.

"Kid Kansas" returned to the win column after suffering a stunning one-punch knockout loss in September. Garcia had been comfortably leading in the fifth round against Ricardo Fernandez – a 15-13 journeyman with just one career KO – before Fernandez landed the career-altering shot.

Garcia, a 21-year-old lightweight from Ulysses, Kansas, turned pro in 2020 after a decorated amateur and signed a promotional deal with Top Rank in March.