Hotly contested Flores vs Castro, Armenta vs Aguirre bouts

Aside from the Blue Horizon in Philadelphia, PA, some say the Concert Hall inside Las Pulgas nightclub in Tijuana is the best place to watch live boxing. Photos: Jim Wyatt

July 17, 2013, Salon Las Pulgas

On Wednesday evening it was Mayen Promotions returning to their favorite, local venue for another exciting boxing show.

(top, left to right) Pre-fight, Carol Castro prepares for her battle with Brenda Flores in the evening’s Main Event. (next) Brenda Flores is in her corner preparing for her bout against Castro. (below) Fighters pose for pre-fight photos with referee Juan Carlos Lee.

The Main Event featured two young, beautiful and charming ladies, flyweights Brenda Flores (3-1, 1 KO) of Tijuana, B. C. and Carol Castro Madrid (3-2, 2 KOs) from Ciudad Obregon, Sonora, Mexico, who went all out to entertain the rambunctious crowd.

As far as drama goes, this four rounder escalated from a first round where Flores dominated with the quicker hands, combinations and ability to slip punches to a final round where she had her hands full deflecting Castro’s heaviest blows.

In the end, all three judges, Carlos Flores, Sergio Lechuga and Esteban Franco awarded every round to the victorious Flores (shown here with her arms raised) with scores of 40-36, three times.

In the Pablo Armenta (black trunks) versus Erick Aguirre (white trunks) match it often appeared as if the two boxers were adverse to using any sort of defensive strategy.

Of equal note, was the return of promising super featherweight Pablo “Bronco” Armenta (9-1-1, 5 KOs) of San Diego to face Tijuana tough guy Erick “Monkey” Aguirre (0-1-1).

After a serious operation on his shoulder and then rehabbing for eight months, Armenta was making his return to the ring after a one year and nearly three months layoff.

His opponent, Aguirre, had just finished battling it out with Prince “Tiger” Smalls of San Diego’s San Diego Combat Academy on June 16th. In that fight Aguirre eked out a hotly contested draw against Smalls who was making his long-anticipated Pro-debut.

Clearly Aguirre, the hometown favorite, had the crowd behind him, especially after this rap singer, a point man for Aguirre’s entourage, made his rowdy entrance to the ring. The crowd knew nothing of the rapper’s lyrics but since the words rhymed, they applauded enthusiastically.

(below) At the conclusion of his bout, the outsider from San Diego, Pablo “Bronco” Armenta had won the crowd over with his masterful and fearless boxing style.

From the opening bell, it didn’t take long before Armenta’s boxing skills shown through and the crowd became less passionate about cheering for Aquirre and more enthralled in watching a great contest.

After Armenta clearly took Round one, Aguirre pulled out all the stops in an attempt to even things in Round two. He keyed on trapping Armenta against the ropes to land these rapid fire, hard shots to the body as well as reach pay dirt with two power shots to the head. That being said, whenever Armenta needed to reestablish his superiority, which he did throughout, all he needed to do was take that one step back and go back to his boxing skills from the outside.

The third round became the real make or break round, a test of stamina for both. It appeared Armenta had no problem as he hung in there with the brawler and went toe to toe to wear him down.

Under attack from the opening bell of the final round, Aguirre had little left in the tank and before you knew it, his hands had gone up to protect his head until the final bell sounded.

Judges Carlos Flores and Esteban Franco scored the bout 39-37 for Armenta while Sergio Lechuga inexplicably had Aguirre winning two rounds for a 38-38 score.

The full card of fights

(top) Brandon “Cannon” Adam’s opponent, Daniel “Spaghetti” Yocupicio, needs the attention of his corner man after just one round. (bottom) In Round #4, Yocupicio was hit by a mean body shot and found it was too difficult to continue the struggle. All photos: J. Wyatt

At the conclusion of his knockout victory, Brandon Adams salutes his loyal fans.

The Brandon “Cannon” Adams (10-0-0, 6 KOs) of Los Angeles, CA versus Daniel “Spaghetti” Yocupicio (6-25-2) of Navajoa, Mexico was supposed to be the Co-featured event. To be truthful, it was liking watching one of those fights you’d see in a movie. You know the outcome but you’re hoping the supporting actor can somehow make you believe the outcome is in doubt. 

Well, there was no doubt in this one. Along about the fourth round, a well-placed left hook to the body caught Yocupicio in the midsection (perhaps a liver shot) and down he went on his knees where he stayed until referee Juan Morales Lee counted him out. Official time was 1:33 of the fourth.

In the junior flyweight, opening bout, it was 21 year-old Luisito Armendariz (green trunks, yellow stripe) of the Pedro “Anestecia” Mora gym in Tijuana, with 18 Amateur bouts, going up against fellow first timer, 23 year-old Alfredo “Andrea” Flores (red trunks, gold stripe) from the Sangre Nueva gym in Tijuana who had only 8 Amateur bouts. 

As the fight progressed, their experience levels showed as the harder punching Armendariz picked his spots and unloaded the majority of the cleaner shots to secure the victory.

(left) Often times Jose Pech found himself in the clinches against Jose Caravantes. (r) We see Caravantes in his corner awaiting the announcer’s call at the conclusion of his hotly contest against the eventual winner, Jose Pech. All photos: Jim Wyatt

In an even more grueling match, Jose Pech of Tijuana (4-2, 1 KO) won a split decision victory over the tougher than usual Jose Caravantes of Tijuana (0-7-1), to earn his fourth victory.

While Pech was definitely the busier of the two boxers and surely landed more of the cleaner, harder punches, Caravantes had his moments when he went all out to land these windmill like, going for broke, “I’ve got you Mr. Pech” attacks at a time when Pech was completely confounded.

Judges Carlos Flores and Sergio Lechuga scored the bout 39-37 for Pech while Esteban Franco scored it 39-37 for Caravantes giving him even more credence for all those exasperating, windmill like earlier punches.

After gaining the victory over Jose Caravantes, Jose Pech has his arms raised in victory by the lovely hostess (r) and referee Cristian Curiel.