Some subs don’t sink
Zamora pounds on Crayton in another high-action card at Acoma

Ringside report and photos by Chris Cozzone

A fight card that, in all probability, should’ve lived up to a down-and-out show, last night at Sky City Casino in Acoma, NM, defeated all odds and kept a packed house of 800 cheering through half a dozen bouts that were, for the most part, action-packed, despite nearly half a dozen fallout opponents.

The card’s billing of “Championship Showdown,” should’ve been changed to “Championship Show-up,” for all but one of six bouts were made with less than a week away—and at least two, with less than 36 hours.

But suddenly-sick opponents and late subs were unable to sink a show that, while not topping Juan Romero Productions’ last dynamite card, gave it a run for its money.

The original main event pitted Luna-born southpaw Joaquin Zamora, marked No. 13 in the WBC’s world welter ratings, against former world title challenger and contender Cosme Rivera. It would’ve been, by far, Zamora’s biggest test, but after Rivera pulled out, claiming sudden illness, it became promoter Romero’s biggest test to secure a fill-in to keep a sinking show afloat.

Best that could be had was 37-year-old, 59-fight, 12-year veteran James Crayton, of Las Vegas, Nev. Having lost eight of his last ten (nine, now), “Too Sweet” Crayton is no longer all that sweet. But, for the still-developing Zamora, Crayton had enough of the sweet science left to give Zamora a bit of opposition.

For the most part, it was a sparring session—until Crayton, waiting and hoping for Zamora to wilt in the last three or four rounds, finally decided to put his foot on the gas pedal. While the sudden toe-to-toe action woke up the fans, there was, either, not enough gas in the tank for Crayton, or someone had poured too much (or not enough) sugar in the gas tank.

Zamora was the aggressor throughout, though in the first five, he zoomed in on Crayton with stiff right jabs, straight left hands and occasional body bangers. Implored by his corner to do so, Crayton started to let his hands go around the fourth or fifth, but even clean shots had zero impact on Zamora, who continued to zestfully zap away.

A headbutt in the seventh momentarily halted the action, and, starting with the eighth, the two went toe-to-toe. Crayton had his best rounds in the eighth and tenth, bombing Zamora in flashes, sometimes body shots, other times, upper cuts or straight rights—still not enough to take a round, but giving Zamora something to think about.

Appearances proved to be deceiving, for, after ten rounds, Zamora’s face was banged up, eyes starting to swell, with nicks and purple splotches, most likely from all the in-fighting and head-banging that occurred in this rightie vs. leftie match, while Crayton was nearly unmarked, never mind the loads of punishment dished upon him by Zamora.

The cards, not appearances, told the tale of this match: all three judges had Zamora way ahead, 100-90 (John Klemiato) and 99-91 twice (“Tex” Bagshaw and Esther Lopez.)

NewMexicoBoxing/Fightnews (NMB/FN) had a shutout win for Zamora.

Somehow, despite Crayton having lost eight out of his last ten, the WBC had stamped its ever-less-meaningful approval for the match to be a so-called championship fight for Zamora’s USNBC welter belt, which the now-14-2-1 (10 KOs) near-contender retains.

“I was ready for [Cosme] Rivera,” said Zamora, “but I knew I’d learn a lot in a fight against a guy like Crayton. He’s a veteran and has fought everybody—I knew he’d be slick, and tough.

“I thought I had him in trouble at the end, but knew he’d come on strong at the end.”

Crayton continues to drop, falling to 34-24-2 (21 KOs).

With Batey-ed breath, Lovato barely wins in banger

In the best fight of the night, Espanola’s Monica Lovato won what should’ve been a razor-thin split decision—if two of the three judges had been paying attention, that is—in a NABF superflyweight title defense against Carly Batey (2-1-2) of San Diego, Calif.

Never mind how two of the three judges saw it, Batey poured it on, building up an impressive lead that had Lovato on the brink of losing—but the Espanolan snapped to just in time to battle Batey back down the finish.

Batey came out like a bionic blast, battling back Lovato with, mainly, a big right hand that kept the hometown favorite at bay.

Finally, in round three, Lovato woke up, opening up on Batey and forcing her foe back for the first time, each big straight left earning a bit more respect out of Batey, who pulled back on her aggressive rushes. Still, the round was close but clearly Lovato’s.

The momentum of rounds four and five, however, swung back to Batey, whose aggression was unparalleled by anyone all night. While Lovato was able to cover up and shelter herself from Batey’s blitzkrieg bombs, her retaliatory attacks, while cleaner, weren’t enough.

On the NMB/FN scorecard, going into the sixth, Batey was ahead four rounds to one, and it looked like Lovato was going to have to win the last three rounds just to keep her belt and score a draw.

It was a different Monica Lovato that emerged from her corner when the bell for round six rang for, in that round, Lovato, finally, took the fight to Batey, jabbing and landing hard left hands while refusing to take a step backward.

In the seventh, Batey drew the line in the sand and the two, neither one refusing to yield, gave the crowd their money’s worth. In the back-and-forth action that saw both landing their best punches of the night, it was Lovato, however, whose mitts packed a slightly higher grade of nitro.

The relentless slugfest continued throughout the last stanza and, once again, it was Lovato’s by a shade, her shots landing slightly cleaner, her gloves registering slightly more steam.

With both fighters’ gloves still smoking, the fight went to the scorecards, and that’s where it failed.

Only one judge—Esther Lopez—rightfully, saw a close fight, scoring it 77-75 for Batey, while the other two, Bagshaw and Klemiato, were way off the mark, scoring an unjust hometown decision for Lovato, 79-73 twice.

NMB/FN scored it 76-76, a draw, though at least one round was flip-a-coin, making a 77-75 score in either fighter’s favor, a very real possibility—well, maybe a very real possibility in a state other than New Mexico.

“I thought it was much closer than that,” admitted Lovato, now 10-1 (4 KOs), still holder of her NABF belt and No. 1 WBC standing at 115 pounds.

“It was a heck of a fight. Her style and aggression threw me off. But, I’ll give her a rematch anytime.”

Batey, suffering her first loss in a match that had her jumping from four-rounds to eight, was shocked at the two lopsided scorecards against her—though, she was thrilled to hear Lovato was open to a rematch.

“I thought it was at least a draw,” she said backstage.

“She never hurt me and slapped her punches—and I saw them all coming. I’m definitely shocked at the scores. 79-73? I knew I was against the odds, not only going from four to eight rounds and fighting at a higher elevation, but doing it in her hometown.

“If she wants to rematch, let’s do it in Vegas or California—somewhere neutral, some place other than New Mexico.”

A loss? No shock for Shocks

In a six-round heavyweight bout, thrown together the day before, Tim Shocks (26-26-4, 15 KOs) lost his ninth in a row.

This time, the victor was Las Vegas, Nevada’s Cisse Salif (19-7-2, 18 KOs), who floored Shocks twice before Referee Lorenzo Saiz stopped the “contest” at 1:48.

Montoya wins, Salazar returns

A four-rounder that matched up Santa Fe junior middleweight Gabe Montoya (1-0-1) against Duke City middleweight Tim Salazar (1-1, 1 KO), was thrown together with less than a week’s notice—but it did not fail to keep the fans shouting.

Salazar might’ve been unable to defeat the younger, faster, harder-hitting Montoya—the kid who came out of nowhere to fight a draw with Adrian Lopez on the last card—but he made a good showing, not only after losing 40 pounds in the last year, but ending a ten-year layoff.

Salazar brought with him tactics of the trade from another era—to Montoya’s dismay, a rough, maul-and-brawl style that kept him from dominating the shorter, stouter Salazar and forced him to beware the assorted elbows, butts and other less-gentlemanly ploys. 

Montoya played matador to Salazar’s bull-like rushes in the first and second, striving to establish a jab and hit from range. For the most part, he was unable to set his plan, but it didn’t take much when he was successful: a clean right hand floored Salazar halfway through the first for a flash knockdown.

Midway through the second, the action was repeated, though this time it was much shorter punch—and this time, it was no flash knockdown. Salazar beat the count, but was on shaky ground. Instead of brawling and mauling, hitting and holding, it was hugging and holding-on for Salazar.

But in the third and fourth rounds, Salazar had recovered enough to take the fight to Montoya, who, showing very little stamina, was quickly tiring. Salazar, warned twice for hitting and holding, went at Montoya, who, while winning the round, took some shots at the end when Salazar bulled him into the ropes.

If any round was Salazar’s, it was the fourth, for Montoya, showing little defense, even less stamina, let his opponent pin him against the ropes to land his best shots of the night—short lefts and rights—for much of the round. Montoya’s efforts, feeble rights and jabs, while scoring, no longer had the steam of the first two stanzas.

After four, the scores varied from 39-35 (Klemiato) to 40-34 (Bagshaw) to 38-36 (Lopez), all for Montoya.

NMB/FN had it 39-35, giving Salazar the final frame, but Montoya, the fight.

Vialpondo impressive in debut

New Mexico can boast another promising hopeful with the debut of Santa Fe bantamweight Anthony Vialpondo (1-0), who outslugged and outpointed game Tucson fighter Harim Madrid (0-1) in a four-round banger.

Madrid came out strong, landing big right hands on Vialpondo in round one. Struggling to figure out the aggressive Tucsonian, Vialpondo tried to get his jab going and, giving up, just duked it out with Madrid. By the round’s end, the Santa Fean’s game plan was starting to shape up.

By the early part of round two, Vialpondo had his game down pat, and was not only batting Madrid with stiff jabs, but moving beautifully and hammering his foe with a variety of shots—not just the right hand that Madrid displayed.

Vialpondo was not only outboxing Madrid—who was less willing to trade by the third round—but obliging his opponent by slugging it out, close quarter, and winning nearly every exchange.

Madrid came out strong in the fourth, but Vialpondo put him in his place, pounding him with clean, crisp rights long range, and an equal number of hard lefts, up and down, in several crowd-pleasing, phone-booth exchanges.

There was no disagreement between judges and NMB/FN: everyone scored it 39-37 for Vialpondo, giving Madrid the first

Interpretive dance with Tyson Cave

In the curtain-raiser of the evening, super bantamweight Tyson Cave (2-0), of Halifax, Canada, went four rounds with Espanola’s Tony Valdez (6-3-2, 6 KOs) in an unscored exhibition bout.

They told us it was a boxing match, but most of us at ringside were convinced it was interpretive dance, at least for the Canadian.

Needless to say, Cave, a highly-touted, four-time national Canadian amateur champion, was less than impressive, showing more footwork than mitt-work. During the four rounds, he danced around, landing powderpuff punches from awkward angles though usually maintaining a safe air cushion of five feet between him and Valdez.

The Espanola fighter, who is also Cave’s sparring partner and took the match on less than a day’s notice after Cave’s zillionth opponent pulled out or was refused, for one reason or another, gave a good fight, landing the harder shots and showing patience, despite, at least, a ten pound weight difference.

Etc.

Local fighters supporting the local action included Ray Sanchez III, scheduled to fight on May 25 at Isleta; Beto Perez, ready to stage a comeback; and Clare de la Torre, Santa Fe female ready to make her debut on the Fresquez card May 23.

New Mexico's premier ring announcer, Mike Adams, was the voice of the night. Lorenzo Saiz and Rocky Burke were the referees.

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