Another Holm Run!
Holly pitches near shut-out to Hallback, while not-so-grizzled Adams takes Martinez for walk on wild side

Ringside report & photos by Chris Cozzone

Making a case for the No. 1 pound-for-pound spot in women’s boxing, Holly Holm, the only unified female champ and, now, owner of six legit world championships, from 140 to 154, gave highly-touted Chevelle Hallback, arguably the best at junior lightweight, a boxing lesson she will not soon forget.

The card, promoted by Fresquez Productions in association with Prize Fight Boxing, was televised on ESPN2’s “Wednesday Night Fights,” Holm’s second TV-headlining fight.

While the exposure from TV was large, the physical crowd that gathered was not. Though able to sell out the 2,800-seat venue at Isleta countless times in the last year-and-a-half, Holm could do little more than attract 2,000 at the spacious Tingley Coliseum—but, then again, she was not only asking the weekday-unfriendly masses of her hometown to venture out mid-week, but have them miss the finale of “American Idol.”

Those showing up, however, not only got to see their “New Mexican Idol” in what just might be her best performance yet, but watch the return of former WBA super bantamweight champion “Bones” Adams, though, at the expense of local favorite David Martinez.

Eating ten pounds to fight Holm at 140, for the vacant IFBA trinket, Chevelle “Fists of Steel” Hallback, of Tampa, Fla., holder of the WIBA jr. feather title at 130, might be Holm’s most sound opponent since her beating of Christy Martin—but the difference in size and style made the fight look easy for Holm.

Holm’s constant jabbing, measuring distance and super-straight left hands shadowed two clean counter left hooks scored by Hallback in round one. In the second, Hallback added counter uppercuts to her game plan, but, once again, the round went to Holm, who took it back with left after left after left.

Hallback holstered her opposition in the third but in the fourth, she had what would be the first of two big rounds against Holm. The two went at it during the first minute, in what was the longest toe-to-toe exchange Holm has ever engaged in. Both landed hard shots—Hallback having the edge—but in the second half of the round, Holm dictated the action by keeping to the outside, making the round a toss-up.

Another brutal exchange marked round five, but Holm’s big, constant lefts put another round in the bank for her. Hallback held back in round six, her one-punch counters doing nada, but in the seventh, she upped her pressure, though not enough to distract ring-mistress Holm.

Hallback had her best round in the eighth, clearly winning her first round, possibly, second. Although unable to keep Holm in one place for too long, the aggression and clean punches landed by the challenger were enough to keep Holm on the defensive, or clinching, for much of the two minutes.

In the last two rounds, Hallback slowed down while Holm poured it on, landing big uppercuts on her foe in the ninth, and, obliging “Fists of Steel” in close quarter action, yet more big left hands.

At the end of ten, the scorecards read 100-90 twice (Judges Levi Martinez of Las Cruces, and Jesse Reyes of Texas) and 98-92 (Judge Anita Sanchez of Albuquerque).

NewMexicoBoxing/Fightnews.com agreed with Judge Sanchez, giving Hallback two rounds, the fourth and eighth: 98-92.

“I couldn’t let my hands go,” said Hallback, now 25-5-1 (11 KOs), who was ending a year-and-a-half layoff. “It wasn’t me in there—I felt sluggish.”

Now the IFBA world champion at 140, adding to the 147- and 154-pound belts already part of her collection,  Holm, 18-1-2, 5 KOs, said the fight was easier than expected.

“She came forward at me but I thought it was going to be tougher than it was,” said Holm. “I stayed with my game plan and used a lot of side-to-side movement. I thought it was going to be tougher than my fight with [Ann Marie] Saccurato. Saccurato was sloppy, rougher. Chevelle had good head movement.”

Meanwhile, Mary Jo Sanders, former 147-pound queenpin, who journeyed north in weight hoping to tack down dancemaster Laila Ali, may be next in line for Holm. The undefeated Detroit champion, of many belts and baubles, sat ringside last night to watch Holm.

“She did a great job,, throwing nice, clean, straight punches,” said Sanders. “I was impressed.

“A fight with Holm definitely makes sense right now.”

In the past, negotiations had never quite gotten off the ground for a Holm-Sanders match.

“It’s a fight that’s definitely being talked about now,” said Holm. “It’s finally being considered.”

Bones be back

The co-main event of the night saw the televised return of former WBA super bantamweight champion Clarence “Bones” Adams, who, fighting for the second time in four years, showed enough of his former self to convince ringsiders that, within a couple fights, he may be a threat to anyone with a belt.

Adams was originally slated to fight undefeated Leon Bobo (16-0, 2 KOs) for the NABO belt. But after Bobo pulled out with a gym injury, the opponent, and belt, were swapped.

In stepped local favorite David “Finito” Martinez who’d been preparing for a swing bout fight against journeyman Paulino Villalobos. On five days notice, Martinez jumped at the chance to fight Adams for the hastily-secured, vacant WBC Continental Americas featherweight belt.

Martinez’ boxing skills put him in the fight, but, ultimately, they were no match for the experience and harder punches of the former champion.

Round one was close, with Martinez jabbing away on the outside while the patient Adams landed one shot at a time, almost all body shots. In the second, Bones stepped up the pressure and kept Martinez dancing from a distance, trying to pepper him with jabs and rights. The local kid was on his way to winning the third round—pestering Adams from a variety of angles and throwing a lot more punches—when Adams closed the gap and landed meaningful punches to the body.

Adams took over the fight in the fourth, landing hard on the inside while Martinez, not moving as much, was on the defensive. Experience factored in and the 52-fight, former world champ was able to not only see his opportunities but capitalize on them with fast, thunderous shots.

Round five was a better one for the hometowner, who was back to hitting and moving, but one big shot from Adams had ringsiders forgetting half a dozen pesky bites out of Martinez. By the end of the round, Martinez was clinching a lot when Adams came too close. A big bomb of a body shot opened the sixth, forcing Martinez to hold on. After weathering the worst of it, Martinez was back to hitting and moving, trying, and sometimes finding success in frustrating Adams.

Bones was too crafty, however, and targeting Martinez’s head now, landing big rights in the seventh and eighth. Martinez returned fire with his biggest punch of the night in the eighth—a straight right—but it did little but cause Adams to blink.

In the final two rounds, Martinez kept to plan, possibly taking the ninth with Adams looking tired, but in the final stanza, the former world champ had his most dominating round when the two went toe-to-toe through many exchanges.

At the end of ten, it was a no-brainer win for Adams, despite the good showing and game risk taken by Martinez.

All three scorecards had Adams winning, 98-92, as did NMB/FN.

“I thought it was pretty even,” said Martinez, who falls to 17-3-1, 3 KOs. “But he got the decision.

“His experience showed. He caught me with a good body shot, but I’m happy with my performance. I could’ve kept at him more, but I did what I could I showed the crowd that I’m here to fight. I don’t care about losing, or records—it’s about who you fight. It was a good experience and I’ll be back.”

Adams, now 43-6-4, 19 KOs, was nursing a damaged hand after the fight.

“I told my trainer after the fourth that I hurt my hand,” said Adams. “But Buddy [McGirt], he said, ‘F--- your right hand. Get out there and fight!’

“I couldn’t throw like I wanted to, but I was satisfied with the fight. It was definitely better than my last fight in Detroit! But, then again, it isn’t hard to look better than that.”

Adams said that with two or so more fights, he would be ready to challenge any champion in the 122-pound division.

“I think I showed the great fans here that I’m back.”

Crowd is “Papitas fritas’ for “Papitas”

Giving the crowd the best round of the night, and proving himself, possibly, the most exciting pro youngster, featherweight Matthew “Papitas” Esquibel (6-0, 3 KOs) picked himself off the canvas midway through round one to pour on the punishment against his toughest opponent yet in Houston’s Angel Rodriguez (2-1, 2 KOs).

It was a knockdown for a knockdown in the first. After finding himself on his butt from a well-placed uppercut, the young fighter known as ‘Burque’s “Mr. Nice Guy,” transformed himself into a well-contained demon in the ring, launching himself at Rodriguez, who went from swaggering to staggering.

Near the end of the round, A big right hand floored Rodriguez, almost for the count. The Houston fighter went back to his corner on shaky legs and spent the next two rounds trying to regain himself—meanwhile, Esquibel rarely let up. Though unable to repeat the knockdown—a testament to Rodriguez’s toughness—Esquibel took the fight to him, blasting him backward with big hooks to the body and rights up top.

Toward the end of the third and, definitely, in the final frame, Rodriguez was back trading shots with Esquibel, though the Albuquerque fighter had the best of it, edging his foe with body shots.

The scores were mixed: 39-37 and 38-36 for Esquibel, and, mysteriously, 39-39.

NMB/FN gave all four rounds to Esquibel, 40-36, scoring round one 10-9, the knockdowns canceling each other out but Esquibel scoring the most damage and landing more shots.

Wild Child Willie

Albuquerque junior lightweight Willie Villanueva (6-0, 1 KO) was handed a tune-up win in his four-rounder against Ramiro Torres (2-7-1, 1 KO) of San Antonio, Texas.

Villanueva’s style is, simply, awkward, and more than a little wild. His reach enables him to blast an opponent from the opposite corner of the ring, though his maneuvering around the squared circle is less than unorthodox.

Torres couldn’t figure him out—when he tried to settle Wild Willie down, he ate a big straight right hand, all night long. Keeping his man at distance, Villanueva measured one long right after another, staggering Torres several times in the third and fourth rounds. By the end of the fight, Torres was no longer trying to battle back but keep the punishment to a minimum.

All three scorecards read 40-36 for the battler from Chavez Karate dojo in the South Valley.

Rude awakening for Gonzales

What was expected to be a blow-through bout for Albuquerque welterweight Daniel Gonzales (2-1-2 KOs), former brother-in-law to Duke City legend Danny Romero, turned out to be his worst nightmare.

Little-known late sub Cornelius Shuler (1-0), from El Paso, might’ve only had seven amateur bouts, but next to Gonzales, the kid looked like Oscar De La Hoya. Showing solid footwork and the rudimentary one-two, he impressively blasted away at Gonzales over four rounds, bloodying his foe’s nose and turning his face into a bloated, puffy mask.

It was jab-jab-jab at Gonzales from the first. Simply outclassed, Gonzales was game, trying to bore his way in to Shuler and trap him against the ropes where he could bang away at the body. It worked for a time in the third and fourth, but the moments of success for the Duke City fighter were few. Shuler simply shuffled out of the corners, popping away at Gonzales, or caught him coming in, slamming him with lead lefts and several right uppercuts that, more than once, snapped Gonzales’ head back until he was looking at the lights up above.

In the third, the bout was momentarily halted, for the ringside doc to give Gonzales’ war wounds a look-see. Seconded by Ray Lopez and Bernie Sanchez, who did a great job stopping the blood flow (but could do little about the being outclassed bit), Gonzales was thrown back in to the wolf from El Paso, who, measuring his stamina in the final bout, let up a bit but easily coasted his way to a unanimous decision.

All three judges scored it for Shuler, 40-36 (Levi Martinez) and 39-37 twice (Margaret Garcia, Anita Sanchez).

NMB/FN had all four rounds for Shuler, 40-36.

Late sub not in the Moody

In the opening scrap of the night, Santa Fe featherweight Clare de la Torre (1-0, 1 KO) won her pro debut by first round TKO when Ashella Moody (0-2), a late, desperate opponent from Raleigh, NC, threw in the towel after one round.

It was an awkward first round, for both fighters, but, for Moody, the clumsiness came from a lack of any apparent training.

Game she was, however, and she went at de la Torre, slapping punches—and that term is used very loosely here—while de la Torre struggled for half a round to find her footing and get a one-two going. Once de la Torre warmed up, though, she started landing clean jabs and rights, bloodying Moody’s nose and taking the fight out of her.

Ain’t no business like boxing business

With the first and last bouts both turning out to be gems, or maybe, blood diamonds, the walkout bout turned out to be another fine example of matching up capable fighters with those having little or no business fighting.

When “Hurricane” Hector Munoz (17-1, 14 KOs)—owner of one of the prettiest records in the state, built on fighters with some of the ugliest—pulled out of his fight against El Paso’s Miguel “Conan” Torrecillas (17-6-1, 8 KOs), in came Belen’s Jeremiah “Jet” Torres. Torres, at 7-14, had not only lost seven straight fights but, in his last outing, had “given” Munoz his last win, not to mention a fully-sanctioned WBC USNBC jr. welterweight belt they’d been somehow allowed to fight for.

Torres, once a capable scrapper, too game for his own good, had been on the receiving end of some of the worst knockouts seen here. There’s also been a steady decline in his skills—but don’t tell that to the New Mexico Athletic Commission, who had no problem letting him fight Torrecillas last night without demanding, at least, an MRI.

So, while most commission members were listening in on Holm and Hallback and Sanders and Adams backstage at a press conference, Torres was getting slammed in the head by dozens of big overhand rights and left hooks by Torrecillas, before a dwindled-down crowd and a skeleton crew at ringside.

Spurred on by his corner to get in there and fight, rather than box and avoid brutal exchanges, Torres never quit—nor did the big head shots from Torrecillas that, on several occasions, had Torres on rubbery legs made in Hong Kong.

The heart-wrencher was the final round, in which Torrecillas blasted Torres for what seemed endless minutes until, finally, referee Russ Mora stopped the contest at 2:10—waiting at least a minute longer than he should’ve waited.

And likewise, waiting two or three or four fights longer than they should’ve waited, Torres, 7-15-1 with one kayo, has been placed on indefinite suspension.

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