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ROSWELL RUMBLES!
Gallito Gets By Candelario
De Los Santos, Castillo Debut
Zamora, Chavez Pick Up Wins
text and
photos by chris cozzone
Editor's
Note: Chris Cozzone was also the matchmaker for this fight card.
Roswell,
NM may soon be known for more than aliens, if things go
according to plan.
If the
turnout of last night’s card, promoted by North Star Productions
at the Roswell High School, serves as any indication, the small
town may be on its way for building a rep for boxing.
A crowd of
800 showed up to watch six bouts and hometown prospect Jeremy De
Los Santos make his pro debut on the first-ever fight card held
in Roswell—not bad considering that on the night before, Sandia
Casino could not have had many more paid spectators than that at
their 4,200-seat venue in Albuquerque for their Telefutura-televised
show.
Headlining
Saturday nights’ card was Cesar “El Gallito” Lopez, who has
recently ranked #25 in the WBC’s flyweight division. Lopez had
accepted the fight on a week’s notice, after 10-0 heavyweight
from El Paso, David Rodriguez, was taken off the card due to
fruitless negotiations between his camp and matchmaker in
finding a “suitable opponent.” Rodriguez had been added after
Eric Holland had been scratched; Holland had secured a
bigger-money fight against Mexican Middleweight Champion Kirino
Garcia in Juarez on May 30th.
The
rotation of main and co-main events on the card had been further
complicated when Alex “El Diablo” Becerra, who’d been the main
attraction for the preceding four weeks, pulled out with a hand
injury, passing the baton to stablemate Lopez.
After
scrambling for a last-minute opponent, Candelario, scheduled to
fight on the 2nd until his foe pulled out with
an ankle injury, just the night before, accepted the fight
against Lopez on four days’ notice.
I expected
the six-round main to go the distance. Gallito would probably
win all the rounds and showcase his talents while Candelario
would give him a good fight without putting Lopez’s nine-fight
winning streak in too much jeopardy.
But,
Candelario was in shape, unlike the time he’d fought Alex
Becerra in Albuquerque, getting floored three times yet still
going the distance despite having the flu. Several other factors
would work for Candelario: he weighed in four pounds over the
agreed-upon 118 and although sweating out two (and settling the
remainder in bucks), would have the weight advantage. He was a
natural bantam, if not super bantam, while Lopez was typically
flyweight.
Things
would get rough for Lopez and before the end of the fight, he
would get sorely tested.
Gallito
breezed through the first round, letting Candelario come on in
before zapping him with stinging combos, then inching out of
way. Giving away the first, Candelario was not risking more than
a few exchanges.
Lopez
continued to control throughout the 2nd. Early on, he
backed Candelario up and let loose with a stream of punches
thrown from every possible angle—he might even had made up a few
angles of his own. Still coming forward, Candelario continued to
take what Gallito dished out.
Always a
slow starter and better suited for eight and ten-rounders,
Candelario started to open up in the 3rd and 4th
rounds, pressing the action in spots while the quicker, more
accurate Lopez would cover up, then let fly to Candelario’s body
and chin with hooks and uppercuts. The less-dimensional
Candelario tried to keep Lopez in front of him for further
exchanging but the flyweight was too feisty.
Round 5
was business as usual—until later in the round when Candelario,
fully awake now, backed Lopez up against the ropes. Lopez
covered up but Candelario launched a bomb of a left hook to
Gallito’s body, followed with a right hand straight down the
pike, and finished with a barrage to the midsection.
“Get out
of there!” screamed Gallito’s corner, and he obeyed. Hurt, Lopez
maneuvered off the ropes with Candelario in hot pursuit to the
middle of the ring where they went at it. They fired away at
each other until the end of the round sounded.
Round to
Candelario.
“Dance,
Gallito, Dance!”
That’s
what you heard in the 6th, as Candelario stalked
Lopez around the ring with murder in his eyes. Playing it safe
and with most of the rounds in the bank, Lopez stayed on the
outside, popping Candelario with jabs and hitting quickly before
sliding out of range. When the two did exchange, Lopez came off
first and danced away before Candelario could do further damage.
The round came to a close.
At the end
of six, I had given Gallito the first four, Candelario the 5th,
and thought Lopez had eked out the 6th with his jab,
making it 59-55. Judges had it 60-54 twice, and, somehow,
57-even, giving Lopez the majority decision win.
Lopez,
clutching his side after the fight, admitted getting hurt in the
5th.
“He caught
me real good in the 5th,” said Lopez. “He’s a good
fighter, and hit me with some good body shots, but I’d been
cramping from drinking too much water.”
Candelario
said he thought he’d almost had Gallito’s number.
“All I
needed was one more round and I think I would’ve stopped him.”
Tony
Esquer, Candelario’s trainer, said afterward that his fighter’s
problem has always been starting too late, and an overabundance
of four-round fights accounts for his lop-sided 6-25 record.
“Joaquin
is an eight or ten-round fighter, but it’s impossible to get him
those kind of fights.”
Actually,
we’d tried to make the six-rounder an eight-rounder but Lopez’s
trainer said that he’d only had one week of quality training
before accepting the fight on short notice. Candelario’s weight
difference had also been a deciding factor.
Gallito
moves to 10-1 now. He’ll be back in action on May 23rd
in Albuquerque on the Fresquez ticket. Lopez says he expects the
opponents to get harder and harder, but names Espanola’s 5-1
Tony Valdez as someone he’d like to fight.
“I heard
he’s been calling me out,” says Lopez. “Well, if he wants, let’s
set it up.”
Undercard
Action
The show
opened up with a four-round exhibition slapped together the day
before after one of the fighters, Mexican Juan Aranday, pulled a
no-show.
On the day
of the weigh-in, Aranday had been detained at the border but
later that night, after his papers were reshuffled and cleared,
he’d been given his manager’s convertible to make the trip for a
late weigh-in on the day of the fight.
Aranday,
who never misses a fight, disappeared, though.—his manager,
Ariel Conde, said it might’ve had something to do with a new
chica—leaving Pueblo, CO’s Eloy “Kray-zie” Varos
opponentless.
Coincidentally, or uncoincidentally, Conde had another
fighter with him who could step in for an exhibition for a few
bills . . . .
A
four-round exhibition with headgear, 10-ounce gloves and
two-minute rounds was arranged, then, between Roberto “Famosito”
Gomez and Varos.
Usually a
wildman in the ring who likes to “feel punches against his head
so I know I’m in the fight”, Varos actually showed some skills
in the exhibition, shocking those who’ve seen him before by
utilizing a jab and setting up combinations. While outskilled
against the more experienced Gomez, Varos, the bigger man by ten
pounds, gave a good fight. Gomez took the 1st and 3rd
but Varos outpunched Gomez in the 2nd and made the 4th
round close.
Xicanito
Debuts
0-3
lightweight Tony Loudy from Pueblo always comes to fight but has
been continually overmatched against much heavier fighters—like
Hector Munoz, who knocked him out in a match set at 154. For
this fight, Loudy came in around the 140 range—still five pounds
or so over his optimal weight.
Tony Loudy
seemed like the perfect match for a 15-15 amateur fighter coming
off a year layoff to make a pro debut. While Oscar “Xicanito”
Castillo from El Paso has been known for years in El Paso for
his endless sideline commentary on the boxing world, his skills
in the ring have been a big question mark.
Now, it
looks like the JCG Boxing team from Chuco might have another
prospect on their hands.
After the
first bell sounded, it didn’t take long to figure out that
Castillo had too much “oomph” for Loudy. Regardless, Loudy was
able to last the distance in this four-rounder.
Too fast,
too skilled, Castillo overwhelmed his opponent several times
before the end of the first round. Unable to put anything
concrete together, Loudy could do little but tie up and curse.
In the 2nd,
Loudy played into Castillo’s hands by coming forward without
throwing enough punches, getting tagged by constant jabs and
one-two’s. In the 3rd, Castillo almost had Loudy down
with straight rights but Loudy was able to tie up and roughhouse
whenever close enough to latch on to Castillo. He was also able
to unload a decent left hook or two on Castillo.
Castillo,
while winning all the rounds with his 1-2’s and 1-2-3’s, showed
a bit of rust and frustration and would not follow through. But,
it did appear that Castillo put Loudy down later in the 3rd
although it was not ruled as such.
At the end
of four, it was a shutout win for Castillo, who turns pro at
1-0.
Castillo
gave himself a “C-“ grade for his performance.
“I had a
year’s layoff and I could’ve done better,” he said afterward.
“But I’ll get into it. I want to continue to fight more
experienced fighters.”
Chavez
Still Unbeaten
The third
bout of the evening was between 2-0 Julio Chavez fighting out of
the M&A Boxing team in Albuquerque, and pro debuter Tony Lopez,
also in ‘Burque.
This match
had the potential to be a banger—but wasn’t.
Lopez, a
“mauler-brawler” from the R&R stable, opened up the action with
a solid left hook that caught the more skilled Chavez’s
attention. Unfortunately, he did not follow through, neither
immediately nor in the following three rounds. Simply put, Lopez
was not busy and allowed Chavez to control him throughout the
fight.
With
jab-right’s, Chavez landed enough to win the 1st, and
by coming forward and firing off more of the same before Lopez
tied up and threw sloppy counters, he won every round. Lopez
cooperated by staying exactly where Chavez wanted him—at the end
of his right hand.
While
Lopez landed a wild left hand or two in the 3rd and 4th,
he ignored the begging pleas of his corner (“PLEASE, Tony, throw
punches!”) and was not busy enough to make a dent in the
scorecards.
Chavez,
now 3-0 (1 KO), sitting in the dressing room with a busted up
hand in a bucket of ice, said he was satisfied with the fight
but that his hand did not permit him to open up.
Lopez
debuts 0-1 as a pro.
De Los
Santos Destroys Mendoza
The
fighter the crowd had come to see was next: Jeremy De Los
Santos, who was turning pro under the watchful eye of Tony
Ayala, Sr.
Matched up
against the more experienced (1-2-1) and much taller (6’ to De
Los Santos’ 5’7”) Martin Mendoza, De Los Santos evened the score
by outweighing his opponent. Both fighters had an equal number
of amateur fights, but from having seen De Los Santos sparring
with Ray Sanchez III, I knew the kid had enough power to take
care of Mendoza . . . eventually.
But it
only took 41 seconds.
After a
tentative 20 seconds, the two came together in the neutral
corner to exchange. Both fighters landed solidly—Mendoza
connected with a left hook to De Los Santos’ temple but the
hometowner was too busy throwing his own left hook for it to
phase him. De Los Santos’ left hook crashed into Mendoza’s chin,
immediately depositing him upon the canvas in a heap.
After nine
seconds, Mendoza got back up on spaghetti legs but referee
Lorenzo Suiz took one look into his eyes and waved the fight
off, giving De Los Santos his first pro win.
“Mendoza
definitely came to fight and I respect that,” De Los Santos said
afterward. “He hit me good, too, but I put a lot into that left
hook of mine that smacked into him.”
De Los
Santos, now a force in the jr. middle division, possibly
welterweight, looks to return in June on the next North Star
card.
Zamora
Zaps Bretado
The final
undercard of the evening saw the return of Socorro’s Joaquin
Zamora, who was coming off a premature-stoppage-loss to Mexican
amateur champion Juan Salazar last October.
Juarez’s
Jaime Bretado, at 2-17, and although a slow starter, was a good
test for Zamora. Bretado’s right hand has always been dangerous.
In 2001, he knocked out NM amateur champ Jesse Hernandez, and in
2000, floored Joseph Brady in the “Assassin’s” pro debut.
Zamora and
Bretado were set for four rounds, and I expected a distance
fight—but Zamora took him out in two and change.
The first
fighter to take out Bretado by stoppage in seven years, Zamora
controlled the fight from the start, popping the Mexican with
his jab and setting up his straight left hand and right hook.
Bretado plodded forward and tried to load up on rights; more
than one landed clean on Zamora’s chin, which held.
Zamora
zoomed around Bretado, boxing circles around him. In the late 2nd
and early 3rd, he moved in closer and went to work on
Bretado’s body. At :52 of the 3rd, Bretado suddenly
grimaced, groaned and dropped to one knee, clutching his ribs.
No mas.
Zamora was
awarded the TKO win and moves to 2-1. He’ll be back in action in
two weeks when he fights the mysterious Pablo Vallin on a Richard
Steele card in Las Vegas, NV.
Look for North Star Productions to return in June . . . stay
tuned.
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