Thrilling finish to the Godoy vs Marks fight at Gonzalez Sports Academy
The projected fight of the night between Adrian Vargas (R) of Undisputed Downtown and Emmanuel Robles (L) of Old School Boxing ended in draw. Photo: Jim Wyatt
Whenever you’re a witness to a memorable fight, you immediately want to run out and tell everyone. The Oscar Godoy versus Joshua “Superman” Marks welterweight match on Friday’s Bobby D Presents show at the Gonzalez Sports Academy in Eastlake was a classic.
Nearing the end of the first round, Oscar Godoy caught Joshua Marks (shown here getting an eight count from referee Pat Russell) with an overhand right to score what is known as a flash knockdown. Photo: Jim Wyatt
Marks’ seventh round KO victory had about the same number of plot twists you’d see in a Hollywood thriller.
In Round one it appeared the jab-less Godoy (4-1, 2 KOs) of Watsonville, CA was in trouble against the shorter, more aggressive and muscular Marks (7-3, 7 KOs) of El Centro, CA now training in Grand Junction, Colorado. For the majority of the round, it was one swing and a miss after another for Godoy while the crouching Marks landed jabs to the midsection with an occasional sneaky left hook up top. Then in the closing moments, Godoy landed a volley of punches along with a beautiful straight right to knock Marks off his feet. First round scoring: 10-9 Godoy.
In Round two, Godoy finally started to use his jab which opened things up for him. Marks, the more aggressive of the two, wasn’t exactly winning over the favor of the 1,000 plus patrons, especially after connecting with a rabbit punch and a late hit after the bell which could’ve cost him a point but didn’t. Still, the elusive Mr. Marks did more than enough to win round two. Marks takes round two, 10-9
By round three, the punches were flying all over the place and Godoy startled Marks when landing a beauty of a right uppercut. Still, Marks was the more active fighter and took round three by countering off each of Godoy’s misses. 10-9 Marks
Round four and five were a repeat of round three but with even more intensity. Godoy and Marks began to lung at each other to land their volleys with Marks being the more accurate and busier of the two. Both rounds four and five were awarded to Marks 10-9.
Here we have the first of three knockdowns of Oscar Godoy (R) by Joshua Marks.
Soon after it was Godoy's turn to get the crowd excited. At this point he had pinned his opponent, Joshua Marks, in the neutral corner. Photo: Jim Wyatt
Here we see Joshua Marks pushing down hard on Oscar Godoy's head. Referee Pat Russell (R) is shown rushing in to issue a warning for the infraction.
Joshua Marks' tactics involved bull rushing his opponent. Photo: Jim Wyatt
Joshua Marks started to wonder what it was going to take to stop Oscar Godoy.
After his grueling battle with Oscar Godoy, Joshua Marks has his arm raised in victory by Hall of Fame referee Pat Russell. Photo: Jim Wyatt
In this photo we see the show's hostesses gathering around Joshua "Superman" Marks to have their photo taken with the victorious welterweight. Photo: Jim Wyatt
In the seventh round, Oscar Godoy (R) made one last push for victory and had his opponent, Joshua Marks (L) in trouble on the ropes.
Oscar Godoy (R) of Watsonville, CA. poses for a photo with his trainer after his memorable battle with Joshua "Superman" Marks.
By round six, Marks had established his left as the set up punch for the combinations and had Godoy backpedaling. Needing a breather from the pounding, Godoy wisely took a knee. When the action resumed, Marks was once again all over him and down went Godoy for a second time. Only the bell prevented a third knockdown in that sixth round. Scoring 10-8 Marks.
After the bell sounded to start round seven, Marks was right back in Gody’s grill pounding away. It appeared it was just a matter of time before referee Pat Russell would have to step-in to stop the bout.
Then, as if the boxers were following a script from a Rocky movie, back came Godoy. Now it was Godoy chasing after Marks and threatening to put his lights out. After tiring from throwing what must have been over twenty punches, Godoy had punched himself out. So back came Marks. This time, the unanswered head shots to Godoy’s head had gone over Russell’s limit and the bout was stopped.
What a match-up this was, Emmanuel Robles (R) the boxer versus Adrian Vargas (L) the puncher. Both boxers grew up in the San Diego area and began as amateurs in the local USA Amateur program.
In the evening’s co-main event, National City’s Adrian Vargas (5-0, 3 KOs) faced Emmanuel Robles (4-0, 2 KOs) of Imperial Beach. It was your classic match-up of the orthodox power puncher, Vargas, going up against the southpaw boxer with lightning quick hands, Robles, in a four rounder.
Since round one was so close, you got to figure the judges scored it in Robles’ favor since he finished the round by landing three unanswered left hands.
Unbeknownst to many, during that opening round, the boxers’ heads clashed and Vargas sustained a nasty gash on his right forehead, a gash that later needed eight stitches to close.
In round two, Vargas was more aggressive and seemed intent on evening the score cards. The majority of his scoring blows were to the midsection. It was this one powerful left hook to Robles’ chin that sent his opponent flying backwards into the ropes. That was a real attention getter. Vargas takes Round 2
For the majority of this bout, the local boxing fans were on the edge of their seats waiting to see if the plodding Vargas would unload his cocked right hand and deliver the knockout blow that’s become his trademark. You’d have to award round #3 to Robles since he was busier and on occasion had Vargas against the ropes or pinned in a corner to land his flurries.
Round four was similar to Round #1, with no clear winner. With the minuscule difference in power shots thrown and the slight edge in punches landed, it was inevitable that two of the three judges would call the match a draw and they did.
After Omar Sanchez (R) was knockdown twice and incurred a nasty cut over his left eye, the fight doctor recommended to the referee that the fight be stopped. Photo: Jim Wyatt
After defeating Omar Sanchez, Pablo "Bronco" Armenta (C) had his photo taken with the show's hostesses.
Was it a great match? No. It could have been, if the promoters had only asked the California State boxing commission to have the bout decided in six rounds.
After speaking with a member of the California Athletic Commission, I was told that at this early stage in their careers, with their limited amount of fights, the Commission would have likely turned down such a request.
Also featured on the card was lightweight Pablo “Bronco” Armenta (6-1-1, 2 KOs) of South San Diego going up against Omar Sanchez (0-2-1) of Fairfield, CA.
Beginning in Round one, Armenta, the clear aggressor, took control of the fight by throwing his attention getting jab. On occasion Sanchez would land a few solid combinations but the majority of the damage was being done by Armenta.
After Sanchez went down twice in Round two, referee Pat Russell stopped the bout to have the fight doctor look at a nasty gash over Sanchez’s right eye, a gash that would later need four stitches. After looking over the cut, the doctor recommended the stoppage.
Raymond Chacon (L) is shown landing a straight right on the chin of Pablo Cupul. Photo: Jim Wyatt
This photo, showing Pablo Cupul throwing a wild left hook, illustrates how elusive Raymond Chacon (L) can be. Photo: Jim Wyatt
The Pablo Cupul of Merida, Yucatan, Mexico (6-2-0, 4 KOs) versus Raymond “Bad Boy” Chacon (3-1-0) of the Maywood Club Gym in Carson, CA. turned out to be a mismatch.
While Cupul tried his best and demonstrated how tough he is, Chacon basically took him apart, one combination after another.
Not to say it was tiresome, obnoxious (oh, I guess I just did) but one of the gents in the Chacon corner kept yelling “Finish him off!!!! x4”
For future reference, when you shout something like this and the entire room goes eerily silent, it’s a strong indicator that the people around you are not of like mind and what you’re yelling is in poor taste.
Raymond "Bad Boy" Chacon of Carson, CA told us he's from the famed Maywood Boxing Club in Maywood, CA. He didn't have to be asked twice about posing for a photo with the four lovely ring card girls.
Here we see Luis Sanchez (L) of Fairfield, CA throwing a straight left at the head of Gabriel Medina of Hemet, CA. Photo: Jim Wyatt
After winning his pro debut over Luis Sanchez, Gabriel Medina (R) has his arm raised in victory by referee Pat Russell. Photo: J.Wyatt
In the final match, we had 20 year-old lefty Gabriel Medina of Marrieta, CA making his debut against righty Luis Sanchez (1-6-0) from Fairfield, CA.
In Round one, you could see Sanchez was having problems with Medina’s left. Medina, who has this lunging style, jumped in and out to land his strongest punch.
In Round two, Medina mixed things up a little and varied his set up punch, the left, to follow with a right cross.
After an inauspicious third round, there was a lot activity in the fourth and final round as Sanchez started landing his straight right and tried his best to pull out the late victory. As they say, it was too little, too late.
All in all, it was a great first night of boxing at the Gonzalez Sports Academy facility in East Lake, an upscale neighborhood of Chula Vista, under 20 minutes by car from San Diego’s downtown. The long list of celebrities in attendance would probably bore you to death, so, suffice it to say there were quite a few. Ball players like Edgar Gonzalez and boxing greats like Antonio DeMarco and Manuel Mantecas Medina.
