With every seat sold along with an additional 80 standing room tickets sold, opening night of the 10th Anniversary Year of Fight Club OC shows set an attendance record as 1,476 fans packed The Hangar at the OC Fair & Event Center in Costa Mesa. And what a night of fight action for local fight fans with all but one bout going the distance and money thrown into the ring after three of the six bouts. Continue reading “Fight Club OC Opening Night Sets Record”

By Robert Coster

Boxing fans at the Club Deportivo Calero in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic, flocked to watch a much-anticipated shootout between unbeaten local prospects Frency Fortunato (8-0, 6 KOs) and Misael Vazquez (6-0, 5 KOs) in the jr featherweight class. Both young boxers are hard punchers and came out swinging from the opening bell but it was evident that Fortunato had superior skills, speed, and power. In the second round, Fortunato cornered his foe on the ropes and unleashed a violent non-stop barrage of punches that forced the referee to intervene. An impressive showing for Fortunato who now lives in the USA.

The co-main event saw Miami-based heavyweight prospect Amron Sands (11-0, 9 KOs) win a unanimous decision over 8 rounds over tough local fighter Cristian Galvez (17-6, 15 KOs). The 6’6 Sands knocked down Galvez at the end of the first round. Galvez, however, held his own from there on and offered stiff opposition. Sands told Fightnews.com® that he hurt his right hand in that first round. The young Bahamas-born heavyweight, signed with DiBella Promotions, is also one to be followed. Continue reading “Fortunato, Sands victorious”

By Joe Koizumi
Photos by Naoki Fukuda

Unheralded southpaw puncher Ryoji Fukunaga (12-4, 12 KOs), 115, impressively captured the WBO Asia Pacific 115-pound belt when he withstood constant assaults of defending champ Froilan Saludar (31-4-1, 22 KOs), 114.5, and finally caught up with the Filipino sharpshooter to halt him at 1:40 of the seventh session in a scheduled twelve on Friday in Tokyo, Japan.

It was a sizzling see-saw battle with split tallies after the sixth: 58-56, 56-58, 57-57. Fukunaga’s persistent body bombardments paid off with Saludar finally sinking to the deck with the referee Someya’s well-received intervention.

Photos

By David Finger

IBF world female featherweight champion Jennifer Han returned to the ring after a lay-off of nearly two years, winning a lopsided eight round unanimous decision over Jeri Sitzes in front of her hometown fans in El Paso Saturday night. All three judges scored it a shutout (80-72) for Han, who improved to 18-3-1, 1 KO. Sitzes, who has never been stopped, falls to 15-11-1, 6 KOs. Golden Eagle Promotions was the promoter.

It was a furious pace from the opening bell, Nguyen landing first and dropping Velazquez. Velazquez continued to force the fast action and he caught Nguyen, dropping Nguyen to the mat for the first time in his career. As the fighters settled into the later stages of the first round, Nguyen landed a huge left that knocked Velazquez out cold. The referee immediately waved off the fight 1:51 into round one.

WBO light flyweight world champion Elwin “La Pulga” Soto (17-1, 11 KOs) of Mexico knocked out countryman Javier Alejandro Rendon (10-5-3, 4 KOs) in round one of a non-title 10 round flyweight main event on Saturday night at the Auditorio del Estado, Mexicali, Mexico. Soto delivered a vicious left hook to the body that put Rendon down and out for the full ten count. Official time 2:41 of round one.

Photos: Sumio Yamada

IBF super middleweight champion Caleb Plant (20-0, 12 KOs) scored a one-sided tenth round TKO over mandatory challenger Vincent Feigenbutz (31-3, 28 KOs) on Saturday night at the Bridgestone Arena in Nashville, Tennessee.

40:1 favorite Plant dominated from the opening bell and progressively broke down Feigenbutz until the bout was waved off by referee Malik Waleed at 2:23 of round ten.

“I felt great out there,” said Plant. “I was relaxed and sharp. I told you I was going to stop this before the 12th round. I want to dedicate this to my daughter, to my mother, my grandfather and the whole city of Nashville.”

The champion also stated his desire to unify versus unbeaten WBC counterpart and rival, David Benavidez. Continue reading “Plant stops Feigenbutz, retains IBF 168lb title”

By Miguel Maravilla at ringside
Photos: Sumio Yamada

Lightweight Ryan “Kingry” Garcia (20-0, 17 KOs) of Victorville, California returned Friday night and made quick work of Nicaragua’s Francisco Fonseca (25-3-2, 19 KOs) scoring a first round knockout at the Honda Center in Anaheim, California, headlining on Valentines Day on DAZN.

It didn’t take long as a lead left hook by Garcia knocked Fonseca out cold. Referee Raul Caíz Sr. immediately waved off the fight at 1:20 of the first. Continue reading “Kingry demolishes Fonseca in 80 seconds”

By Miguel Maravilla at ringside
Photos: Sumio Yamada

Former world champion Jorge Linares (47-5, 29 KOs) of Venezuela scored an explosive fourth round knockout over Los Angeles’s own Carlos Morales (19-5-4, 8 KOs) in the co-feature on Friday night at the Honda Center in Anaheim, California.

Testing each other out with the jab, Linares and Morales took the first to figure out and measure distance. Morales landed some snapping punches on the inside connecting with an uppercut snapping Linares head as the former world champion was cut above his left eye. Linares stalked in the third as Morales jabbed away with him. A short Linares right hand dropped Morales.

A crushing Linares right hand in round four is what finally did it as he sent Morales to the canvas again. Referee Thomas Taylor counted Morales out at 2:09. Continue reading “Linares KOs Morales in four”

IBF #7 lightweight Isaac “Pitbull” Cruz (19-1-1, 14 KOs) defeated Thomas “Gunna Man” Mattice (15-3-1, 11 KOs) by ten round majority decision on Friday night at the 2300 Arena in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

Cruz, of Mexico City, rode his superior work rate, a lethal body attack, and his ability to neutralize Mattice’s jab to the victory. The judges scored the fight 95-95 and 96-94 twice. Continue reading “IBF #7 Pitbull Cruz defeats Mattice”

By Miguel Maravilla at ringside

Santa Ana’s welterweight prospect Alexis “Lex” Rocha (16-0, 10 KOs) made his homecoming in defending his WBC Continental Americas welterweight title in winning a unanimous decision over Brad “King” Solomon (28-3, 16 KOs) of Georgia. Continue reading “Undercard Results from Anaheim”

By Joe Koizumi

Unbeaten prospect Kento Hatanaka (11-0, 9 KOs), 112, defeated Filipino Roland Jay Biendima (15-6-1, 8 KOs), 111.75, by a unanimous decision (99-0 twice, 98-91) and kept his WBC youth flyweight belt on Tuesday in Nagoya, Japan.

Kento, the son of former WBC 122-pound champ Kiyoshi Hatanaka (also his manager/promoter), scored his second defense and extended his winning streak with his father as chief second.  Kento, 21, took the initiative all the way, but Roland occasionally displayed his persistent retaliation with a solid left hook at a time.  Hatanaka was an obvious victor, but it was true he had a tough time against the durable Filipino.

Photos: Sumio Yamada

WBO minimumweight champion Wilfredo “Bimbito” Méndez (16-1, 6 KOs) retained his title by ninth round TKO over Gabriel Mendoza (30-7-2, 23 KOs) in the main fight of the “WBO Champions Tournament,” held at the El Panama Hotel in Panama City.

Méndez dominated all the way and the referee stopped the action at 1:28 of round nine to save Mendoza from further punishment. Méndez will now take aim at his mandatory challenger Jing Xiang (#1 ranked) and then fight with the other champions. Continue reading “Bimbito Mendez retains WBO 105lb title”

By Kurt Wolfheimer at ringside

Gary Russell Jr. (31-1, 18 KOs) retained his WBC Featherweight title with a hard-fought twelve round unanimous decision victory over Tugstsogt Nyambayar (11-1, 9 KOs) on Saturday night at the PPL Center, Allentown, Pennsylvania.