Boxing News Boxing News
Colorado prospects Adrian and Anthony Mora continued their winning ways on Tuesday, January 31st at the Sherman Street Event Complex in Denver on a card to be televised by HDNet. Adrian (15-0-1) and Anthony (15-0) have started 2006 off with a bang, and are looking to make their mark on the jr. welterweight division in 2006, a testament to their desire as they have no promotional backing. “This is our year to establish ourselves in the division, all of these other prospects get the recognition and TV face time, but who have they fought? Give us a chance and everyone will see who the future stars of the division are going to be” said Anthony Mora.
The opening bout, a clash at 126 lbs. saw prospect, Jose “Baby-Face” Morales (2-0) blow out an overmatched Esli Dominguez (0-2) in the first round. From the opening bell it was obvious that Morales was on a mission, and Dominguez was in his way. Morales quickly established the jab and had Dominguez moving backwards from the beginning, a right hook dropped Dominguez, who rose, but a flurry of punches forced a stoppage in the first round.
An entertaining slugfest saw Julio Lanzas (4-7-2) outpoint the always game Bradley Jensen (14-18-3) over six rounds. Lanzas consistently went to the body of the taller Jensen, keeping his opponent off-balance throughout the fight; Jensen never seemed to be able to find his range. A clash of heads in the fifth round opened a nasty cut over the right eye of Jensen, a cut that could have stopped the fight, but instead it was allowed to continue, resulting in a majority decision win for Lanzas by scores of 57-57, 60-54 and 59-55.
The co-feature of the night saw a closer than expected fight between rising prospect Anthony “The Matrix” Mora (15-0) and Roberto Valenzuela (34-21-2). Valenzuela was the first real test of Mora’s career, and though the fight was close, Mora showed a champion’s heart, will and a chin, rising from the canvas in round six to almost put Valenzuela away in rounds seven and eight. Mora, who had been out of the ring for six months looked obviously rusty throughout the night and the always game Valenzuela pressured him all night long, landing big right hands and hard left hooks to the head and body of Mora.
To his credit, Mora answered back all night, stinging Valenzuela with his jab and incorporating a short right uppercut/hook hybrid into his repertoire, snapping Valenzuela’s head back all evening. Scores of 77-74 twice and 76-75 once were debatable, but hard to argue against. With the win Mora stays unbeaten and answers a lot of questions about his chin and desire.
Feliciano Rios (6-4) was knocked out by a body shot in the 4th round of a scheduled six by Hector Leyva (8-3). Rios, who had a distinct height advantage abandoned his jab early and tried to fight inside with Leyva, whose unrelenting body attack broke Rios down. Leyva improves to 8-3 and has expressed interest in fighting another Colorado prospect, undefeated Marvin “Much-2-Much” Cordova in the near future.
Adrian “Juanito” Mora (15-0-1) blasted out an overmatched Shawn “Sabre” Simmons (26-16-1) in the second round of a scheduled 10-round main event. Mora, who had just watched his older brother win a slugfest, was obviously looking to take out his frustration on someone, and Simmons was the man across the ring. A stinging jab continued to back Simmons up, but to his credit, Simmons kept coming forward, trying to get inside his much taller opponent. A thumping overhand right sent Simmons crashing to the canvas, though he managed to rise he was on shaky legs, forcing referee Curtis Thrasher to stop the fight at 0:48 of the second round.
The final bout of the evening saw Hector “Chin Checka” Saez improve to 8-3 with a sixth round TKO over Juan Manuel Matias (8-6). It was obvious that Matias did not want to engage Saez at all and was content to employ the Ruiz “jab-n-grab”. Losing every second of every round, Matias did land one overhand right that briefly buckled Saez, but did nothing to follow up, instead he allowed Saez to bully him around the ring, ripping left hooks into his body. The sixth round saw Matias hit the canvas after a body shot, he then rose, but still did not look to engage and another Saez flurry forced a stoppage.
All in all, it was an exciting night of boxing and one of the best cards that Colorado has seen in some time, a solid job of promoting and a solid job of matchmaking gave Colorado fans reason to believe that big time boxing can be done in Denver.
