Enrique Colin becomes KO victim #28 of Daniel Sandoval

Thursday evening, Mayen Boxing Promotions in association with Zanfer Promotions was back at Las Pulgas Salon in Tijuana’s downtown to showcase another exciting lineup of local boxers.

The main event (Bout #8) featured a crucial welterweight clash between 21 year-old Daniel “Galeno” Sandoval (28-2-0, with an incredible 28 KOs) and 29 year-old Enrique “Colinsillo” Colin (30-8-2, 26 KOs) in a scheduled 10 rounder.

How crucial was this fight? First, we must paint you a picture. Sandoval is from Guadalajara, Jalisco, Mexico, a city known for its high achievers, people like Vincente Fernandez, Carlos Santana, soccer greats, los Mariachis, and a slew of Flyweight and Bantamweight champions. But they’ve never been that successful in the higher weight classes. At least, not until now.

Here we have one of Guadalajara’s favorite sons visiting what must seem like a hick town with less than a third of the population of his own. Sandoval’s opponent, Colin, came to Tijuana from Guasave, Sinaloa, Mexico. He is a lot shorter than Sandoval, although he does have a more muscular body frame. His ring entrance is quite subdued, almost hush-hush.

Then came Sandoval’s introduction and subsequent entrance into the venue. We see he’s surrounded by an entourage of really big, what you might call nefarious looking individuals. Crisscrossing his chest are two bandoliers of large bullets, the same bullets used in a M-60 machine gun.

In a city like Tijuana that’s extremely sensitive about ammo and firearms, and restricts their entry at the boarder, you got to wonder how this gunslinger passed through security. Myself, I don’t even carry a pocketknife when crossing the boarder. If I did, I could be arrested and charged with possession of a deadly weapon.

As they lifted the heavy bands of bullets over his head, I kept a lookout for a stray machine gun. With none present, I ignored my earlier misgivings and remained seated to watch the young man showcase his talent.

At the outset it appeared Sandoval’s aggressive style and stinging jab would keep Colin at the proper distance, so he could simply out-point his opponent. Near the close of Round one, Sandoval had Colin backing up and caught his opponent with a late flurry to secure round one.

Round two was the first of two controversial rounds. In the midst of one toe to toe scrap, Sandoval pulled out of the infighting to complain of a Colin head-butt. Without a warning or so much as a scratch on Sandoval’s forehead, the referee immediately issued Colin a point deduction. Angered by the ruling, Colin went for broke. In the heat of battle the momentum swung back and forth with Colin scoring with blows to the body and head, while Sandoval’s less frequent punches landed with more velocity as he took advantage of his longer limbs.

Each round got more exciting and from here on out there was no more touching of gloves to show respect. After a Sandoval barrage in the third, Colin had wobbly legs and held. After a Colin combination, it was Sandoval’s turn to gasp for air and hold.

By Round #4, Colin’s confidence had grown to the point where he knew it was just a matter of time before he landed that big punch to put Sandoval on his back. His jab, then straight right combination had Sandoval’s eyes glazy. Then came this big, hard right hand flush on Sandoval’s chin to send Sandoval to the canvas.

Even though Sandoval beat the count, you could see he was just one punch away from having the lights turned off permanently. On wobbly legs, he continued to hold Colin with the tightest of bear hugs. Surprisingly, referee Juan Manuel Rincondid not issue a warning even after the six, seventh and eighth infraction. This wasn’t your usual holding, he held Colin like a baby Koala Bear holds its mom. By not being more demonstrative in separating the two, or issuing at least a warning, it appeared Rincon was allowing Sandoval to hold.

In Round #5, Colin began where he left off. After feigning a left, he landed a full extension overhand right that again had his opponent in trouble but this time Sandoval miraculously stayed on his feet. After each staggering blow, Sandoval and then Colin would instinct-fully tie each other up.

It was difficult to imagine how each round could outshine the last, but they did. The way each boxer recovered from the big blows was almost inconceivable. After more back and forth action in the sixth, Sandoval caught Colin flush as he was coming in. The head snapping right hand had Colin land on all fours. Colin reached his feet on the count of eight. A short time after, Sandoval sent Colin to the canvas for good for the KO win.

 

 

 

On the undercard:

Bout #1

This exciting four rounder featured two super bantamweights from Ensenada making their pro-debut, Juan Carlos Torres and Victor Serrano.

Despite being the aggressor throughout, Serrano got the worst of it. After contesting the opening round and controlling the majority of the third, Torres clearly stepped it up in both the second and final rounds with the more crowd pleasing counters and sharp blows to Serrano’s head.

Bout #2

Tijuana welterweight Gerardo Pozos, who was making his pro-debut, lost an unanimous decision to Ensenada’s Oscar Alexis Canett, also a debutant.

In Round #1, neither boxer cut any their opponent any slack as they unloaded their best body shots. By Round #2, it appeared Canett was gaining an upper hand by being more elusive and becoming the slicker puncher. A bit frustrated, Pozos landed a low blow and near the end of the round, he cornered Canett to force another heated exchange.

After continuing his domination in Round three, Canett got surprised big time in Round #4. After Pozos caught him with a wicked shot to the head, Canett grabbed Pozos as if he were a long lost relative and hung on for dear life. If the round had lasted another 20 seconds, it’s possible Pozos would have gotten the knockout.

Bout #3 featured bantamweights Luis Esteban Hernandez and Javier Miranda both from Tijuana and both making their debut. Hernandez, a southpaw, took full advantage of the taller Miranda by getting inside his defenses and landing that left hand almost at will. Miranda proved he has a granite chin by taking many hard shots. With the shorter Hernandez spending the entire fourth round on his bicycle, the three judges ended with identical scores of 39-37.

Bout#4

Reynaldo Russell (6-1-1, 4 KOs) was awarded a unanimous decision with scores of 39-37 twice and 40-36 over Jose Iñiguez (4-12, 1 KO), both of Tijuana. Since the shorter Iñiguez employs this closed up, boring style, Russell didn’t need to take many chances. He basically played the same game. He worked over the midsection, landed a rare head shot and for a little over 12 minutes the patrons got little entertainment value. In that time, Russell landed maybe three good shots to the head but that’s it.

Iniguez opened up his shell for all of 20 seconds to start the fourth round and then went right back to his conservative ways to end the most tiresome match.

Bout #5

San Ysidro, CA’s Oscar Godoy (6-2, 3 KOs) went the distance against Tijuana’s Refugio Contreras (1-7-3, 1 KO) to earn an unanimous decision in another ho-hum match. Godoy is a professional boxer. I’m not sure what Contreras is. He may have missed his calling. I could see him in a Lucha Libre outfit. He would be better suited in the raslin’ profession because he spent the majority of his time trying to get Godoy in either a head lock, choke hold or in the clinches.

Bout #6

In a six round light welterweight match between Tijuana’s Rafael Cobos (11-4-4, 3 KOs) and Alejandro Alonso (2-10-2, 1 KO), also of Tijuana, the fight had to be stopped in the third round due to an accidental head butt suffered by Alonso. In all my days I never saw blood pouring out of someone’s head like that. The bout was declared a technical draw.

As you might imagine, Cobos was winning every round against the rather awkward Alonso who fights the majority of the time with his hands down. Is it no wonder he loses? Even though they’re calling it an accident, Alonso was the one who caused the head butt.

Talk about having a run of bad luck, Cobos’ record over his last seven fights is 1 win, 3 losses and 3 draws. No need mentioning Alonso’s record, he’s won only twice in a 15 year period.

Bout #7

The bout between Mario Lara (0-7-1) and Julio Cesar Romero (3-0-1) was a real crowd pleaser. Early on the southpaw, Romero (with Romero written on his trunks), was the sharper and busier of the two and landed at 70-30 clip to win the opening rounds.

By the third round, Lara had figured Romero out and began to land these big overhand rights, the ones with radar tracking. Every time he launched one of these H bombs it hit pay-dirt. Both boxers gave everything they had until the final bell.

In the end, judge Benjamin Rendon scored the bout 39-37 for Romero while judges Leo Ibarra and Alejandro Rochin saw it an even 38-38 which made the bout a majority draw.

The most confusing aspect of this match was the name on the bout card, Julio Cesar Romero which differed from what the officials posted in their records, the records they sent to the commissioner’s office after the finish of the show. Records which had Romero listed as Julio de la Torre. Hopefully, they’ll get this one sorted out.

Bout #8 was the Main Event

Bout #9

Hector Velazquez (52-17-3, 35 KOs) appeared to be going through the motions with one of Tijuana’s perennial losers Adan “Ojitos” Gamboa (1-13) in a four round lightweight match. It appears Gamboa has a five year track record of padding people’s records. You could tell, Velazquez, who always brings his best, wasn’t bubbling over with the unanimous decision victory.

Bout#10

In the super bantamweight division Jorge Alfredo Pitta of Tijuana made his debut against Carlos Alberto Avila (0-1) of Tijuana by way of Sonora, Sonora, Mexico.

Round #1 featured a lot of throwing but little landing. We have to give Avila a slight edge in Round #2. Pitta took Round #3 after Avila appeared to have a muscle cramp in his leg. Pitta took full advantage and landed three unanswered blows. Round #4 was plain ugly as neither boxer landed more than one glancing blow. In the end, the verdict came swiftly – another draw.

The next local Pro Boxing show is scheduled for June 28, 2012 at the Four Points By Sheraton Hotel. This Bobby D Presents promotion is expected to feature some of San Diego’s top talent – Adrian Vargas has already been mentioned.