In his Homecoming, Antonio Orozco defeats Honorio to get win #20
At the conclusion of his victory over Martin “El Brochas” Honorio of Mexico City, San Diego’s Antonio Orozco is joined by his trainer Carlos Barragan Jr. (l) and manager, Frank Espinoza (r). Photo: Jim Wyatt
May 15, 2014
The special edition of “Ringside at Del Mar,” which aired Thursday evening from the Del Mar Fairgrounds live on FOX Sports 1 and FOX Deportes, is now in the history books. As projected welterweight sensation Antonio “Relentless” Orozco (20-0, 15 KOs) of Paradise Hills, San Diego, CA moved one step closer to his shot at a World Title by defeating the veteran Martin “El Brochas” Honorio (32-9-1, 16 KOs), a gentleman who over a 16 year career has fought some of the best ever and won six titles.
What made Thursday night’s triumph so special? This was Orozco’s first fight in his hometown, in front of family and friends, in almost four years. For many years, locals watched him develop, progress up the ranks and now he’s a ranked contender, married with three adorable children. On Thursday night, he was like this favorite son, who after being drafted by the Military, then sent off to war and on his return receives this much deserved welcome home.
(photo, top, left) The vocalists competition continued at Del Mar as award winning tenor Gerardo Gaytan (l) melodiously belted out the Mexican National Anthem and then Alejandro Amezcua wowed the crowd with his version of the Star Spangled Banner. Their awesome balance of the high and low overtones was remarkable. (top, right) Paulie Malignaggi, the former IBF Welterweight and WBA Lightweight Champion and now boxing color commentator for Fox Sports, was introduced to Tijuana’s jr. Flyweight Champ Kenia Enriquez. (below) The show’s organizers finish their last minute preparations. Photos: Jim Wyatt
Getting back to Thursday night’s performance
From the outset, Antonio Orozco forced the action and not once took a backward step. His opponent’s strategy involved using his jab, circling left away from Orozco’s power and trying to potshot Orozco from a distance. Before you knew it, their heads brushed against one another, and blood started trickling down Orozco’s cheek from an inch long gash above the cheek and below his left ear. Between rounds, cut man Miguel Diaz did an amazing job of stopping the bleeding.
(top photo) In the opening round, the boxers, Antonio Orozco (r) and Martin Honorio (l) size each other up. Photos: Jim Wyatt
With the action becoming even fiercer in round two, both boxers went to work pounding the midsection. Then, it was Orozco landing the big overhand right. With both boxers letting their hands go, their final exchange was so intense it continued well past the bell.
By round three, Orozco had gotten himself into a rhythm of countering off Honorio’s misses. At this point, blood came trickling down from Honorio’s left nostril.
Signs this match was going to be a real dogfight continued through round four. Each time Orozco landed a big overhand right, Honorio responded with the two and three punch combinations. Just before the bell, Orozco caught Honorio with another solid right that caught him flush. As a consequence, there was more blood, not only above Orozco’s right eye but now above Honorio’s right eye.
From round five on, it was downhill for Honorio as the Orozco power shots kept reaching their target and Honorio’s responses had less and less affect. In desperation, we saw Honorio switch to the southpaw stance in round eight.
After a point was deducted from Honorio in round nine for hitting on the back, it became clear the only way he could pull out a victory was by way of knockout. At the 1:20 point of round nine, Honorio got caught with a stiff jab that most likely broke his nose.
In the 10th and final round, the stouthearted veteran stood up to Orozco’s final assault which featured a three punch combination that would normally end anyone’s night.
At the conclusion of the bout, both boxers knew they had been in a war.
With the knockdown and final punch stats showing Orozco with 235 punches landed to 127 for Honorio, the judges’ decision was a foregone conclusion.
TV bout #1
In the opener for TV, a junior Featherweight six-round contest, it was 26 year-old Manuel Roman of Paramount, CA (16-2-3, 6 KOs) going up against 35 year-old Jose “Cacho” Silveira (15-10-0, 6 KOs) of Kanasin, Yucatan, Mexico, who now trains at the Marron Boxing Camp in Lakeside, CA.
This was one of those close-in fights, two guys hammering away in a telephone booth. Since Roman landed the more accurate, better leveraged punches, you had to figure it was just a matter of time before Roman won by attrition. Then, in the final round, as if to add some intrigue, Roman had a point deducted after delivering a low blow. The point deduction had little to no bearing on the contest as all three judges scored the bout 59-54 in favor of Roman.
If you check Silveira’s record, you’ll notice he has 4 wins, 9 losses since October 24, 2010. To quote Paulie Malignaggi, “You either get better or you get shop worn.” Silveira is the latter.
Boxer Manuel Roman (r) and promoter Jorge Marron ( l) await the pre-fight introductions. Photo: Jim Wyatt
At the conclusion of his bout against Jose Silveira, Manuel Roman (c) has his arm raised in victory by referee Jose Cobian. Photo: Jim Wyatt
TV bout #2
The Co-Main event scheduled for 10 rounds in the Jr. Featherweight Division had 5’7” Manuel “Tino” Avila (22 years of age) from Vacaville, CA (14-0, 5 KOs) going up against the much shorter but more experienced, 5’4” David “Morita” De La Mora (25 years of age) from Tijuana, B. C., Mexico (25-5, 18 KOs).
(below, left) Manuel Avila (white trunks) is shown getting the first of his three knockdowns versus David De La Mora. Photos: Jim Wyatt
(bottom) After being knocked off his feet 3 times in Round #2, we see the fallen David De La Mora pondering what went wrong. Photos: J. Wyatt
(bottom) At the conclusion of his bout versus De La Mora, Manuel Avila (c) has his arm raised by Hall of Fame referee Pat Russell. Photo: J. Wyatt
In this one, Avila showed accuracy plus which led to the knockout victory at the 1:52 mark of round two. On the third of three knockdowns, Avila had De La Mora on his back and the count was waived. As they say troubles come in threes. This was the third straight loss for De La Mora, third straight by way of knockout.
TV bout #3
In a four round middleweight tilt, it was 42 year-old Jamal Harris (5-9-4, 3 KOs) from Los Angeles going down to defeat at the hands of 26 year-old Elias “Latin Kid” Espadas (6-1, 3 KOs) of Merida, Yucatan, Mexico.
This was a case of the up and coming prospect, Espadas, facing an experienced journeyman, Harris, who most likely felt he had a puncher’s chance and took it. All told, Harris landed four serious, big overhand rights to the side of Espadas’ head.
On his way to victory, the more accurate and durable Espadas was able to absorb Harris’ heavy artillery and in the end scored well enough to get a resounding victory with scores of 40-36, 39-37, 39-37.
(left), On Thursday evening at the Fairgrounds Arena, we see Elias Espadas (black trunks) making his ring entrance to face Jamal Harris.
At the conclusion of his battle with Harris, Espadas has his arm raised in victory by Hall of Fame referee Pat Russell. Photo: J. Wyatt
Interesting to note: Over Harris’ 10 years as a prizefighter (18 bouts), he has never faced anyone with a losing record and yet only once did he fail to go the distance.
On the undercard
In a super welterweight contest, it was 22 year-old Tevin “Triggerman” Watts (3-0-1) of Lancaster, CA gaining an unanimous decision victory over 28 year-old Elliot Seymour (1-8, 1 KO) of Pasadena, CA. This was a no-contest from the opening bell.
Interesting to note: Watts’ past opponents had a combined record of (1-12-1). The only person Seymour ever beat, John Dunham, has an equally dismal record of (1-10-1).
(bottom) In their junior middleweight clash, we see Elliot Seymour (white trunks) taking a lot of punishment from Tevin “Triggerman” Watts. Photos: Paul Gallegos
At the conclusion of his bout against Elliot Seymour, Tevin Watts has his arm raised in victory by referee Pat Russell.
Next, we have San Diego featherweight Prince “Tiger” Smalls (4-0-1) having little to no problem defeating Tijuana’s Victor Serrano (2-3).
In the opening round, Smalls led off with three bell-ringers and finished the round with an impressive flurry. To his credit, Serrano was extremely resilient and at no point did he show signs of caving in.
After going toe-to-toe with Smalls to close out round two, about 25-30% of the crowd became very vocal and started cheering for the underdog, as if were a contest of David versus Goliath. Aside from the rare occasion when he did land a brief one-two combination, this fight was in the Smalls’ column most of the way. The three scores of 40-36 for Smalls will attest to that.
If you ask Victor Serrano, he’ll tell you. It was certainly no day at the beach going up against the much taller Prince “Tiger” Smalls (l). Photos: J. Wyatt
(top, left) At the conclusion of his bout, Serrano waves to supporters. (bottom) After it was announced his son had soundly defeated Serrano, Tiger Smalls, Small’s father/trainer, points his finger at that section of the audience where several, let’s say loudmouths, were haranguing his son. Photos: Paul Gallegos
We saved the shocker till last
Bout #6 had Chula Vista super featherweight Jorge “Tito” Ruiz (6-1-0, 2 KOs) facing the much shorter 23 year-old Walter Mechor Santibanes (2-2) from Phoenix, Arizona in what was projected to be an easy victory for Ruiz. Then, after looking over Ruiz’s previous seven bouts (24 total rounds), we discovered he had never faced an opponent with a winning record and the combined record of his eight opponents was (4-11).
His opponent, Santibanes, came into this match after taking a much, more difficult path. In his previous four bouts (22 total rounds), all of which went the distance, Santibanes faced opponents with a combined record of (10-0-1).
Now we go to Thursday’s contest which kind of reminds you of the Chris Arreola versus Bermaine Stiverne contest of last Saturday. Like Arreola, Ruiz dominated the scoring in the first three rounds. Aside from the opening round when the more excitable Santibanes landed three hard shots to the midsection, Santibanes spent the majority of the time thrashing about at Ruiz’s shadow.
Then, at the 1:16 point of round #4, the patient, more tenacious, more powerful Santibanes let loose with this hammer of an overhand right that landed flush to put Ruiz on his back. The stunned audience sat there with their mouths agape. They couldn’t believe what just happened.
Despite his valiant attempt to beat the count, then look lucid and speak coherently, Ruiz had virtually no shot at convincing referee Jose Cobian that he could continue. This was Ruiz’s first time ever at being a knockdown victim. The first time ever that he had been knocked out.
(top, left) Making his way to the ring is Walter Santibanes. (below, right) Before entering the ring, Jorge Ruiz waves to his supporters. Photos: J. Wyatt
For three solid rounds, it was as if Jorge Ruiz (right) had the match in cruise control. Photos: Paul Gallegos
(bottom) Walter Santibanes (r) unloads the biggest punch of his young career on the unsuspecting chin of Jorge Ruiz, Jr. Photo: Paul Gallegos
Take a gander at the surprised look on the faces of fight fans when they see Jorge Ruiz get knocked off his feet in the final round of a bout he was winning.
At the conclusion of Bout #6, Walter Santibanes has his arm raised in victory by referee Jose Cobian. Photo: Jim Wyatt
Once again the promoters outdid themselves. At this juncture, I would venture to say, it will be extremely difficult for them to come close to matching the excitement of their last two shows. Only time will tell.
