Randy's savage debut

Story & photos by Chris Cozzone

Albuquerque’s Randy Arrellin always said, when he turned 18, he was going to go pro.

But he hadn’t meant to go pro so quickly—not on Jan. 23, 2009, anyway—at least, not until his team got the call a couple weeks ago.

“We got a call because nobody wanted to fight ‘Hollywood,’” said Arrellin’s trainer, Bernie Sanchez, who runs the TUFF Boxing Club in the South Valley of Albuquerque.

“We said, ‘Why not?’ It’s a tough debut, but it makes a statement.”

On next week’s Holm-Lamare card, at Isleta, Arrellin will hang up his headgear to debut against Raymond Montes, a.k.a. “Hollywood,” who, for many reasons, may be a slight favorite, at least on paper.

Though coming off a three-year layoff from the fight game in making his own debut, Montes’ difficult style, several years experience and being four years older than Arrellin has, at least, the readers of NewMexicoBoxing.com seeing Arrellin a narrow underdog.

“Fine, we’ll go first in fighting ‘Hollywood,’” says Sanchez. “We know what we have in Randy. Hollywood’s older, 22, but has won no big tournaments.”

Last year, however, Arrellin won his division at the Gene Lewis tournament. Now, after 80 bouts—65 wins, 15 losses—Arrellin is anxious to switch from the open division of amateur boxing, to the pro ranks.

“I think I’m ready,” says Arrellin, who’s been fighting since the age of 12, the entire time under the TUFF banner.

“My high point in amateur boxing was the Gene Lewis, and getting up from a knockdown to high-ranking Adam Ochoa. I got up to prove I can do this.”

“Randy’s been ready,” says trainer Sanchez. “The amateurs don’t have a lot to offer a fighter like him. It’s his style of boxing—he’s gone as far as he’s going to go.

“It’s not skill-it’s style.”

And Arrellin’s style, says the TUFF team, is made for the pros.

“I don’t know that much about my opponent,” says Arrellin, “but I know I’m ready.”