Boxing News Boxing News
 Photo by Joe Ulrey |
Several boxers were knocked out on Monday night at Ontario, California’s Doubletree Hotel, entertaining the 1,113 fans who attended the evening’s fight card. One losing boxer that was not knocked out, spent much of his fight trying to taunt his opponent. |
Another losing boxer that managed to stay on his feet actually butted his head into his opponent. Indeed, that added to all the drama that surrounded Thompson Promotion’s “Path to Glory”.
The evening’s card commenced with a four round bout between two junior welterweights – Carlos “Michoacano” Martinez of Miraloma, CA against Felipe Campana of Tijuana, Mexico. For three rounds, this was a very sloppy fight. Neither boxer could maintain their composure. Every landed hit seemed reckless, and lacked any legitimate body control. Early in the first round, the fight was so sloppy that Campana had a cut above his right eye. Campana attempted to respond to that cut with a head butt to Martinez in the third. The referee stopped the fight at that point. Per California State Commission rules, a fight where there is a head butt before the fourth round of a four round fight will result in a technical draw – which was the ultimate outcome in this fight, with Campana’s third round head butt. Martinez remains undefeated at 1-0-1, while Campana is 2-3-3(1),
That set the stage for yet another entertaining fight between Ivan “Sitting Bull” Stoval, of Pomona, CA, and Juan Carlos “El Acorazado” Parra of East Los Angeles, in a four round bout between the two super middleweights. Parra made the fight very interesting – every time he had a solid exchange with Stoval, Parra would take a step back, and waive his hand toward his face. The gesture was a taunt, enticing Stoval to land a hit to his face. Stoval did this several times, in an effort to cover up his weak fighting skills. Indeed, Stoval controlled most of the fight, and lost only one round on all the judges cards.
Stoval landed better body and face shots, earning him a unanimous decision. After the fight, I asked “Sitting Bull” about Parra’s taunting: “It’s really mental. He does it to make it look like he is winning. A couple of times, I even responded – he got me, and I really wanted to step in and strike him hard. But my coach told me to be patient, not pay attention to the taunting, and just go about my business. And I won the fight.” The “Sitting Bull” improved to 4-1 (2), while Parra taunted himself a loss, 5-6-2 (4).
The following four round bantamweight fight between Manuel Roman, Maywood, CA, and Jose Carlos “El Periquito” Cardenas of Mexico City picked up where the last two fights left off. After a head butt and a taunting loser, it appeared the only thing left to see was a knock-out. This fight featured two knockdowns. Cardenas started off the fight strong, winning the first round with a strong jab to Roman’s head. The blow caused Roman to be knocked down to the ground, causing the crowd to jump to its feet at the end of the first round.
Somehow, Roman recovered, and dominated the second and third rounds with a series of body shots, uppercuts, and jabs to the head. The aggression paid off when he knocked Cardenas to the ground in the third round. Cardenas got back up, but never regained control of the fight, leading the judges to a unanimous decision in favor of Roman. Roman stated, ” didn’t think much of it when I was on the ground … it was early, in the first round and there was a lot of fight left. I just had to be more aggressive for the rest of the fight. I learned not to take my opponent lightly.” Indeed, he made up for that first round knockdown, to improve to 7-0-1(5), while Cardenas is now 5-6-2(3).
Jorge “Comino” Perez, Pomona, CA, took on Anthony Martinez, of Alajuela, Costa Rica, in the next fight – a six round super featherweight matchup. Perhaps the least dramatic fight of the evening, there were no knockdowns or taunting or headbutting, just two boxers duking it out till the end. Both fighters traded jobs and hard body punches throughout the fight. Yet Perez was the dominate fighter. Even though he was one pound lighter, Perez had a significant height advantage over Martinez, and he used that edge as best as he could.
Instead of smothering his opponent, Perez’s long wingspan landed very good head shots, in addition to hard-hitting body shots. Perez was relentless at times, and there was no way Martinez could overcome the height discrepancy. Indeed, the judges agreed with a unanimous decision ruling in favor of Perez, who improved to 7-2. It was a tough blow for Martinez, who is now 20-21-3 (9).
The next two bouts made up for the lack of drama in the super featherweight contest. Both remaining fights combined for a total of about one round of total action. A six round welterweight bout between Gustavo “El Gallito de Oro” Torales, Pomona, CA, and Juan Pablo “El Toluco” Montes de Oca, was filled with fireworks from the opening bell.
Both boxers charged each other and viciously took shots at each other. It was clear both boxers wanted to land a knockout punch early. Indeed, Torales took that hit, with a devastating blow to the head by Montes de Oca. The fight only lasted 1:42 in the first round. WBC Youth Welterweight Champ Timothy Ray Bradley, Jr., offered his take on the quick bout: “Both boxers like to fight hard, and the came out fighting in this one. Whoever took it to the chin first would be the one to lose. Looks like Torales was the one who got hit to the chin first, and that’s why he lost.” Montes de Oca offered a different take: “We just trained hard.” Looks like his hard work paid off, as “El Toluco” is now 7-10, with his 4th KO. Torales dropped to 4-2 (2).
The junior middleweight Main Event did not give fans time to catch their breath. After a spectacular knockout in the previous fight, Enrique “Scorpion” Gutierrez, Santa Rosa, CA, and Terry Wright, of San Diego, both hoped to continue in knockout fashion with their bout. The southpaw “Scorpion” wasted no time taking control of this fight. He basically bullied Wright, and had him against the ropes the final thirty seconds of the first round.
When Wright was on the ropes, he took a beating by the southpaw and Scorpion was relentless and just kept hitting him until the bell rang. The second round started off where the first ended, and at 1:41, Scorpion knocked out Wright, sending fans home with another KO. Gutierrez improved to 9-0 (8) with the KO victory, while Wright is now 5-7-1 (4).
If you are a boxing fan, you could not ask for more drama. Thompson Boxing Promotions did a wonderful job of matchmaking and entertaining fans in the process. A headbutt, a taunting boxer, three fights with knockouts and one boxer with complete dominance over his opponent; the fans indeed got their moneys worth, while the fighters discovered that the “Path to Glory” is not always an easy one.
