Results from Saturday’s show at the Escondido World Market Place
It’s Showtime! On Saturday night, Gino Carpinelli (center), the Escondido World Market Place’s promoter extraordinaire, could not refuse a request from the lovely ring card girls to have a photo with the maestro of North County marketing.
September 21, 2013
On Saturday, even with a big MMA Show, the Xplode Fight Series, across town on the same night, the latest Pars Entertainment boxing show turned out to be a grand success.
Why? Because, as in the Amateurs, the boxers who were performing had built this reputation for going toe to toe and giving the boxing fans what they want – an all action match.
In Bout #1, they featured two rookies, southpaw, 22 year-old Johnny Rivera of the San Diego Combat Academy in Mission Valley trained by Tiger Smalls going up against a 28 year old, righty Mike Haigood of the Und1sputed Fitness & Training Center in San Diego’s Downtown who is trained by Joe Vargas.
Despite having an opportunity to spar against Rivera, Haigood had no answer for the solid left hands that kept landing against the side of his head. Even though it was a tightly contested match, Rivera took every round on his way to an unanimous decision victory.
On Saturday night at the Mano a Mano Boxing Show at the Escondido World Marketplace, Mike Haigood (top right) is the first boxer to make his entrance for the battle with Johnny Rivera (photo left). All photos: Jim Wyatt
At the conclusion of his debut bout against Mike Haigood, the victorious and funloving Johnny Rivera poses for all sorts of photos – one with his coach Tiger Smalls and another with Hall of Fame referee Pat Russell. All photos: Jim Wyatt
Bout #2 saw ex-Mixed Martial Artist Alec Christenberry, who works out at the UFC Gym in San Marcos, CA and lives in Foothill Ranch, CA, in his pro-debut against the more seasoned Ulises Sierra (3-0-1, 2 KOs) of San Diego.
In this one, Christenberry was not ready for the likes of Sierra and his boxing skills. His reckless style kept him afloat for one round but then in the second round Sierra started catching him with the solid two and three punch combinations.
The end came in the second round when Sierra had the taller Christenberry pinned against the ropes and began pounding him with more and more unanswered blows. Referee Jose Cobian finally stepped in to stop the onslaught.
With his support group to include trainer Joe Vargas (r), Ulises Sierra (c) makes his way to the ring for his bout against Alec Christenberry.
After a strong first round, Alec Christenberry became the victim of an onslaught of punches in Round #2. (bottom left) The fight doctor exams Christenberry after the referee’s stoppage.
With the win, Ulises Sierra improves his record to 4-0-1 with 3 KOs.
In Bout #3 they featured middleweights, 23 year-old Jesus Lopez (2-0) of Tanos Boxing in Oceanside, CA going up against 28 year-old Jarrod “Showtime” Tennant (1-0) from South Central Los Angeles. With the enormous ring (there had to be a minimum of 24 feet from post to post), the frustrated Lopez spent almost the entire fight chasing after the more defensive minded Tennant. The situation reminded you of an exasperated commuter running after a departing bus as it left the bus stop.
When Lopez did catch up or corner Tennant, it seemed Tennant’s accuracy and hand speed allowed him to get the best of most exchanges.
As usual, Jesus Lopez (top left photo, right hand side) was the aggressor throughout in this four rounder versus Jarrod “Showtime” Tennant. The problem for Lopez was the ability of Tennant to set traps and counter with even harder shots to earn an unanimous decision.
The size of this enormous ring favored the more elusive Jarrod Tennant who kept one step ahead of the oncoming Jesus Lopez, the puncher/brawler.
Jarrod Tennant (bottom left, red trunks) has his arm raised in victory by referee Jose Cobian.
In Bout #4, they had 21 year-old, super bantamweight Benjamin Briceno (1-1-0) of San Leandro, CA taking on 19 year-old Mario Cuin of Temecula, CA who was making his pro-debut.
From the outset, these two gents banged away at each other with the only real difference being the fact that Briceno was landing his punches at a higher percentage. In the dark of night, the judges were given an assist from the sound of the thuds plus crowd noise. When Briceno landed one of his big uppercuts or a round house right, the crowd reacted with the loud ooh’s and aah’s.
In the final round, Cuin and Briceno layed it all out there, emptying their energy tanks until the point where their match resembled that closing scene in Rocky one. Despite their fully leveraged punches, neither boxer could knock the other man off his feet.
Even though the decision for Briceno was never in doubt, the outcome of Round four certainly was.
The Mario Cuin (l) versus Benjamin Briceno (r) bout was a slugfest.
At the conclusion of his bout with Mario Cuin, referee Pat Russell raises Benjamin Briceno’s arm in victory. (below, left) Briceno is congratulated by the show’s promoter Ari Soltani.
In the Main Event, they had local favorite Ricardo Gutierrez (2-1-0, 1 KO) of Escondido, CA taking on Norberto Pantaleon (0-1-0) of Oceanside, California.
The 30 year-old Pantaleon, who hadn’t fought in over four and a half years had taken the fight to avenge his brother’s loss to Gutierrez back on June 27th, and as mentioned “I took the fight to motivate my little brother. I want to see him get back the hunger.”
The show’s closer turned out to be a tightly contested match. Each boxer took turns being the aggressor while the other waited to counter. Sometimes it’s impossible not to sound trite, but this match did indeed turn into a chess match which was confirmed when the announcer read off the scores, 38-38, 38-38, ..-.., a draw.
(bottom, left) Ricky Gutierrez is shown on the attack against Norberto Pantaleon.
- After an announcement of a draw, this is when you often hear someone in the crowd call out – “How about another round?” On Saturday night both boxers had a smile on their face when they heard this suggestion. Especially Pantaleon who had a welt under his right eye. The same sort of bruise Lucas Matthyssye suffered when fighting Danny Garcia the previous Saturday. The same sort of welt that caused Matthyssye to lose vision out of his right eye.
