Zanfer Promotions opens 2015 with a plethora of bouts
Elvis (Torres), along with his supporters which included promoter Fernando Beltran, CEO of Zanfer Promotions, were in the building! After Saturday’s win over Carlos Avila, Torres now has 10 wins, 7 of which came by way of knockout.
As an avid boxing fan what do you say to a Boxing Promoter who opens his 2015 season with a show featuring 40 boxers scheduled to compete in 124 rounds? You’d probably go over the top with praise and mention how he’s raised the bar for the entire industry.
The boxing fans who attend such a show will no doubt get their money’s worth.
That’s what happened on Saturday, January 10, 2015, at Municipal Stadium in Tijuana. It seemed like everyone who was anyone was on this fight card. They had Elvis, Indio, the Black Pearl, La Muneca, the Cobra, the Sultan, Chino, Hindu, Italiano, so on and so forth. Even with the first bout starting at 5 p.m., there was no way the organizers could finish this show before midnight.
How many boxers do you figure fell asleep while waiting to compete? How many had their name misspelled or had an erroneous record attributed to their name? It was bound to happen. For the officials and record keepers, Saturday night must have been quite a challenge.
That’s why we’re now asking for an assist (una petición de ayuda) – if you see anything amiss in the fight results or descriptions from Saturday’s show at Auditorio Municipal Fausto Gutiérrez Moreno, Tijuana, Baja California, Mexico on Saturday, Jan 10, 2015, please advise us in the comment section.
We begin with the bouts Zanfer Promotions aired on TV’s Boxeo Azteca:
Featured Bout #1, a 10 round light flyweight contest, was won by 21 year-old, southpaw Sandra Robles (9-1-0, 3 KOs) of Tijuana who for eight out of 10 rounds outboxed her opponent 27 year-old righty Linda Soto (6-5-0, 3 KOs) of Puerto Penasco, Sonora, Mexico.
After getting caught off-balance by a right hand thrown by Soto in round one, Robles’ glove touched the canvas for the dreaded flash knockdown call. As you would expect from a true professional like Robles, she soon settled in and most likely won the next eight or nine rounds by being the more accurate and quicker of the two. Judge Alejandro Rochin scored the bout 98-91 for Robles, while the other judges had it closer at 97-94 and 96-93.
Here we see Sandra “Perla Negra” Robles (l) landing one of her lethal left uppercuts on Linda Soto who does a good job of covering up the face but not the body.
After her big win, Sandra Robles is joined by her loyal staff.
Featured Bout #2 saw 23 year-old Javier “Cobra” Mendoza putting on an awesome display in front of the home folk. The newly crowned IBF light flyweight champ (23-2-1, 19 KOs) scored a second round TKO victory over former world title challenger 25 year-old Mauricio Fuentes (17-4, 11 KOs) in this non-title bout. After Mendoza dropped Fuentes twice in round two, one of Fuentes’ corner people entered the ring to throw in the towel. After the victory, it was announced Mendoza is now slated to make his first title defense against the #1 rated Milan Melindo later this year.
(photos, top, l to r) Javier Mendoza first lands a powerful right cross that spins Mauricio Fuentes’ head around, then he connects with the left uppercut. As a result, Fuentes was soon lying prone on the canvas.
Featured Bout #3 was another treat for the home folk. With Edivaldo “Indio” Ortega’s big win over the visiting Christian “Italian” Esquivel (27-6, 20 KOs) of Temoaya, Mexico, Mexico, Ortega reached the always impressive 20 win mark. Ortega secured the victory by firing off a barrage of shots to the body and head. He then put Esquivel down and out with a hefty overhand right at the 1:30 mark of round three of their scheduled 10 rounder. After all his work in the gyma, Ortega is now ready for a shot at one or more of these ABC world titles. With the loss, Esquivel has now lost four of his last seven fights, losing three of those fights in Japan.
(photos top) Edivaldo Ortega of Tijuana is shown swapping leather with his opponent Christian Esquivel of Tolluca, Mexico. (photos bottom), We see the more durable Ortega standing over the fallen Esquivel who eventually went down for the count.
In the fourth Featured bout, in the minimum weight division, it was Mario Rodriguez (19-9-4, 12 KOs) scoring a fifth round TKO victory over the 34 year-old Armando “Ichiro Ozeki” Torres (21-14-0, 15 KOs) from Mexico City. Torres is the nephew of former WBC Light Flyweight champ German Torres.
In the above match, 26 year-old Mario Rodriguez (19-9-4, 12 KOs) came away with an exciting 5th round stoppage of 34 year-old veteran Armando Torres (21-14-0, 15 KOs) in a bout that was scheduled to go 10 rounds. Photos: Jim Wyatt
Close-ups of the fighters: Mario Rodriguez (l) and Armando Torres (r).
Featured Bout #5 a light middleweight contest, had Abner “Jaeger” Lopez (21-4-0, 19 KOs) of Tijuana going up against 31 year-old Jose David Mosquera (16-5-1) of Arpartado, Columbia. Mosquera only lasted till the 2:25 mark of round two. By that time he had his distances measured and started unloading with the hard shots. It’s hard to believe it’s now almost two and a half years since Lopez, a virtual unknown in 2013, surprised everyone by knocking out Emilio Bojorquez (20-1) from the Undisputed Fitness Gym in Downtown San Diego.
In the 5th featured bout, Abner Lopez went right to work in the second frame to level Jose Daniel Mosqueda and earn win #21, 19th by knockout.
The ring announcer for the evening was none other than Pablo Flores who unlike other announcers thrives on pressure.
Now the results from the other 15 bouts
Word to the wise! (top photos) In Bout #12, an 8 round lightweight contest, you often saw the unorthodox 20 year-old, Eduardo Galindo of Tijuana (9-0-1, 7 KOs), put his hands down by his side and challenge the 17 year-old Gregorio Perez of Guasave, Sinaloa (5-1, 4 KOs). Yes, at this time Galindo does have the quicker hands, but he paid dearly for his stunt in round one when Perez had him down on the canvas. In the immediate future, the younger boxer might just develop that hand speed and on that day Galindo might find himself in worst trouble. All photos: Jim Wyatt
In Bout #13 it was Elvis Torres of Tijuana (10-0-0, 7 KOs) earning another TKO victory. The victim this time was Carlos “Chocolate” Avila (1-7-0) who from the expression on his face likely got caught with a punch to the liver. Under advice from his corner, he remained seated and didn’t come out for round six.
(bottom, center) In Bout #14 it was Hector Gabriel Flores (8-0-2, 4 KOs) coming away with the fourth round TKO victory over Efrain Gonzalez (2-9-1).
In Bout #15 it was 22 year-old southpaw Rigoberto Hermosillo (3-0-1, 2 KOs) of California getting the best of Hector “Chango” Aguilar (0-5) of Tijuana. The towel came in after Hermosillo landed this hard shot to Aguilar’s midsection.
In Bout #16 it was 19 year-old Rafael “Furioso” Guzman (15-0, 9 KOs) of Ensenada, B. C., Mexico (purple trunks, white trim) taking it to the courageous Pedro “Pitbull” Lopez of Tijuana (4-9) who went round after round getting pounded in the midsection. The last time Lopez won a fight was back on December 3, 2010.
Even though Guzman went at it hard, he just couldn’t break Lopez’s will to go the distance, all six rounds. The judges gave Guzman every round.
Quiz time – how many of the 15 attendees can you name? We could have made it easy by adding photos of the Morales brothers, Erik, Ivan and Diego but what good is a brain teaser unless there’s a challenge.
(bottom, right) Bout #17, it was Rafael “Big Bang” Rivera (17-0-2, 12 KOs) living up to his name by stopping the formidable Jacob Perez who was making his pro debut.
It was bound to happen and it did. At the close of Bout #18, the three judges (to remain nameless) awarded the unconscionable, indefensible victory to Edgar Daniel Ahumada (bottom, right). The affected boxer, Antonio Tlatelpa must have been in shock when he heard the announcement – most people had their jaws dropping. There was only one person landing punches in this fight and that person was Tlatelpa. For shame. With the win Ahumada improves to 2 wins and 6 losses while Tlatelpa loses his first fight and drops to one win with one loss. Photos: J. Wyatt
In Bout #19, it was 17 year-old Ricardo “Hindu” Espinoza getting the TKO victory over the game Angel Cruz from Tijuana’s Revoluxion Gym. Both boxers were making their pro debuts. Photos: J. Wyatt
If you left the building early, you missed the “Bout of the Night”. The final match between the 22 year-old, undefeated Marcos “Pantera” Randel (3-0)(blue trunks, white trim) and the free swinging Pedro “Inquieto” Palma (3-12)(blue trunks, black trim) was a memorable gutsy performance by both men.
Both boxers were thinking the same thing – ‘How do you stop this guy?’
(bottom, left) In the end, there was the mutual respect from Randel (r) who put up quite a fight and the winner Palma (l) who just wouldn’t stop throwing punches.
Before the Main Event and between some of the co-featured bouts, were additional bouts. They were as follows:
Welterweight Jaime Munguia (9-0, 6 KOs) looked impressive as he took a unanimous decision over the game Alan Zavala (3-2, 2 KOs), also of Tijuana, in their six rounder. Trading blows throughout, it seemed Munguia was always the one making certain to land the heavier blows and more of them. The scores, 59-55 twice and 58-56 confirm that opinion.
The Alan Zavala (top, left) versus Jaime Munguia (bottom, right) fight was a last man standing, all out war in which Munguia proved to be stronger, more durable.
In what was considered a major upset, super bantamweight Jorge De Alba (13-2-1, 10 KOs), trained by former world champ Raul “Jibaro” Perez, was knocked out at 1:32 of the first round of a scheduled six rounder by Alem Robles (7-6-2, 2 KOs) of Los Mochis, Mexico. All it took was a straight right and down he went. Seconds later with his back against the ropes a series of punches, ending with another overhand right, sent Alba back down to the canvas. Even though De Alba beat the count, he was on wobbly legs which gave credence for the ref to stop the bout.
Jorge De Alba (l) and the victorious Alen Robles (r).
Ismael “Chino” Camacho (3-0, 2 KOs) remains undefeated after a second round TKO victory over Jose Hernandez (0-7). In their bout, Hernandez lasted until 2:12 of the second round.
(right) Ismael “Chino” Camacho (3-0, 2 KOs) and (left) Jose Hernandez ().
Jose Quirino Jr. (7-2-1, 2 KOs) scored a unanimous decision victory over Julio “Sexy Boy” Robles (3-5-1) in their four rounder. Scores were 40-36 and 39-37 twice. With this being his third straight loss, you might think things have gone sour for the once promising super bantamweight.
Julio Robles
In one of the early bouts it was Victor Efrain “Chaky” Sandoval (8-1-0, 7 KOs) defeating Jesus Sandoval (no relation). After “Chaky” knocked Jesus down, Jesus was unable to beat the count. The time of the knockout was :47 seconds of round #2. At least Jesus Sandoval is consistent – that was his fifth loss in five fights and in all five he was KO’d – in all five he failed to go the distance.
In the final match, it was Tijuana’s Edgar Daniel “Piernas” Ahumada (2-6) winning an unanimous decision over Tlalnepantla, Mexico’s Antonio Tlatelpa (1-1, 1 KO). All three judges scored the bout 39-37 for Ahumada.
