Sweet science & sour lemons at Sky City
Last-minute patchwork on Sky City card features the good, the bad, and the ugly

Ringside report & photos by Chris Cozzone

When life hands you lemons, you’re supposed to make lemonade.

Last night at the Sky City Casino in Acoma, N.M., with five last-minute opponents, promoter Juan Romero tried to make, or get, a little bit of punch out of the lemons he was given.

For a couple of the fighters—and that term is used loosely here—there wasn’t enough sugar in the world to sweeten their science in the squared circle. But, for the others, encountering either reluctant locals or having the misfortune of being up against heavier hands, disaster was averted.

The real saviors on the show, however, were two original bouts unstained by change, though one-the best fight of the night—was marred by bad judging.

Welcome to New Mexico.

But, all in all, there were no real big surprises on Saturday night’s card: David Proa scored another knockout, the judging was terrible, and, despite half of the contracted opponents bailing out on suspect excuses, resulting in a few lemon bouts, there was still enough well-matched action to give a less-than-full house their money’s worth.

Prone by Proa

The original opponent for heavy-handed Albuquerque bantamweight David Proa was David Springer, of Las Vegas, Nev. Springer was an early pullout, couple weeks back, who claimed a family emergency was forcing him to back out, which would’ve been a legit excuse had he not re-appeared on the line-up of a card closer to home in Fallon, Nev., scheduled for Aug. 29.

Instead, Proa was matched up with Tucson’s Isaac Hidalgo, who’d previously gone four rounds with local featherweight Alan Sanchez (2-0, 1 KO). Though he had to give up a few pounds and hit the scales in his sweats to match Hidalgo’s weight of 121, Proa’s heavier hands tipped the beam well in his favor.

Against Proa, Hidalgo did not last more than a minute and one second. At the sound of the bell, Proa was all over Hidalgo, hurling lefts and rights at his foe. Hidalgo made the mistake of trying to trade shots rather than ride out the early assault.

After an unintentional head clash drew a drop of blood from his forehead, Proa redoubled his efforts and, driving Hidalgo to the center of the ring, unleashed a left hook to the chin that knocked the Tucsonian flatter than a mug of day-old beer.

“It was that headbutt cut that got him peeved,” said Proa’s trainer, Tony Sigala. “We’ve been working on boxing and taking his time in the gym, but he doesn’t listen.”

Proa’s kayo power keeps his record a perfect 4-0, 4 KOs, while Hidalgo drops to 1-2.

(Oh, and by the way, Springer, now 1-0-3, won his fight Friday night in Fallon, Nev.)

Piar's fire tires

Albuquerque featherweight James Piar (3-0, 2 KOs) came out spittin’ fire against unknown late sub, pro debuter Arnaldo Parra (0-1), of Colorado Springs, Colo., who replaced the reluctant Santa Fean Beto Perez (1-3) on three days notice.

Though not entirely unskilled, Parra was no match for “Got the Fire” Piar in the opening canto. With a demonically smiling Piar in hot pursuit, Parra timed a couple of nice hooks to the mug, but went down under heavy fire twice, before the round ended.

The end was a given, once the second bell rang.

Parra went from physically dazed to mentally amazed, when Piar did not rush in to finish the job he started in the first. Though continually moving in, Piar holstered his smoking guns and let Parra recuperate through the second round.

In the third and fourth rounds, not letting his hands go and throwing only when safe—for instance, in a clinch against the ropes—Piar let Parra back into the fight . . . that is, if Parra had been interested in fighting and not just surviving until the final bell, which is exactly what he did.

Piar’s inactivity in the second, third and fourth rounds was still more than enough to win those rounds, though, not exactly, the puzzled fans, who’d seen him on the verge of a no-brainer knockout in round one.

After four rounds, the judges scored the bout 40-34 and 40-35 twice, with two of the judges forgetting to score the first round 10-7 due to the two knockdowns.

Torrez tears into foe, then tires

Of the five late subs on the card, junior welterweight Gregory Coverson (1-1, 1 KO), Detroit fighter now living in Albuquerque, proved the toughest, and, certainly, the most interesting. The mohawk’d youngster, who spent three minutes lip-synching and pantomiming his walk-in music,  replaced Cornelius “Hard Times” Shuler, one of two El Paso fighters who bailed on a few days notice.

Unfortunately for Coverson, son of highly-ranked former fighter in the late ‘70s & early ‘80s, Greg Coverson, a few days prep work under the capable Fernando Calleros wasn’t enough time to sharpen up for Josh “Pitt Bull” Torrez, who came out snapping at the ringing of the bell.

Unlike his debut, Torrez came out confident and with conviction, taking the fight to the awkward-looking, awkward-fighting southpaw. After an accidental clash of noggins caused a cut on Torrez’ brow, the Duke City fighter’s inner pitt-bull was let off his leash, and he went after his prey, knocking him down not once, but twice, with clubbing right hands to the side of the head.

Coverson was not damaged goods, however, for the knockdowns were of the flash variety, and, starting with round two, the flashy fighter made Torrez work for his win.

Steady pressure from Torrez and working behind a jab to land his big right, earned him the second, but, by the third, he was far too tired to finish what he started in round one.

Both of ‘em were tired, but a lag in the pressure put forth by Torrez in the opening rounds enabled Coverson to worm his way back into the mix. Both fought in spurts, but it was Coverson’s spurts, all odd angles from the southpaw stance, right hooks and uppercuts, that edged him the third.

Lucky that his foe was unable to dent a bar of butter, Torrez continued to sag in the fourth, though he made a last-ditch effort in the closing minute to score another big right. Coverson’s sneaky, cleaner counter punches, however, edged another close round.

Not that the judges saw any of that.

After four, all three judges scored every round for Torrez—with two of ‘em forgetting to score round one, a two-knockdown round, 10-7. One judge had it 40-34 the other two, 40-35.

This writer had it two rounds apiece, but with round one, at 10-7, making Torrez the rightful winner, 38-36.

‘Tudy’ Can’t Fail

After 150 amateur bouts and six national championships, Las Vegas, N.M. welterweight Arturo “Tudy” Crespin (1-0, 1 KO) entered the pro ranks by chopping down late sub Brijido Olivarez (0-1), of Alamogordo.

The unknown Olivarez replaced El Paso’s Albert Jimenez (1-0), who jumped ship earlier in the week. Unlike the two Espanola “fighters” on the card, Olivarez, at least, showed rudimentary boxing skills.

Against Crespin, however, the much taller opponent had about as much success as the U.S. Olympic boxing team in Beijing.

Taking his time, Crespin walked down Olivarez, then barreled into him with a flurry of shots. Taking a couple of shots to close the range, Crespin’s left hooks and overhands landed flush. Working Olivarez to the body and trapping him against the ropes in the closing seconds, Crespin tore into his foe with a left hook to the body that did the trick.

Olivarez dropped to the canvas where Referee Rocky Burke halted the contest, official time 2:51.

“It never felt this good in the amateurs,” said Crespin. “This is right where I’m supposed to be.”

A student at NMSU, Crespin has joined the Las Cruces PAL camp, to work alongside Austin Trout, Siju Shabazz, Ricky Vasquez and Sammy DiPace.

Lopez-Gutierrez steals spotlight

A battle of unwon jr. lightweight locals, who pitched a non-stop, blistering four-round scrap, won honors for ‘Best Fight of the Night,’ with Albuquerque’s Alejandro Lopez (1-1) scoring a much-debated decision over Santa Fe’s Cesar Holguin-Gutierrez (0-3).

There was no running after one another, no fancy dancing—the two met in the center of the ring in round one, and they, pretty much, stayed in front of one another for the next four rounds.

Lopez, coming down in weight from his game effort earlier in the year, led the charge in the first, coming at Holguin-Gutierrez at a hard pace. The Santa Fean, however, though the smaller man, met the charge and fired off faster, cleaner combinations, taking a slight edge over the aggressive Lopez.

In the second, Lopez picked up the pace, applying more pressure and blasting away at Holguin-Gutierrez with lefts and rights, through the first two minutes. Holguin-Gutierrez caught the free-swinging Lopez coming in several times, and turned the fight around in the final minute, but the hard pressure from Lopez earned him the round.

With neither fighter giving ground, Holguin-Gutierrez, bleeding from the nose, weathered Lopez’s harder shots and returned fire with cleaner punches, nearly every time they traded—which was often. The toe-to-toe action continued through round four, both blasting to the body then head-hunting, both landing, but Holguin-Gutierrez catching enough of the shots on his shoulders and arms, then countering with cleaner rights and hooks, for a slight edge.

Unfortunately for Holguin-Gutierrez, this writer, and most ringside, were the only ones who saw his edge. All three judges, Chris Tellez, Margaret Garcia and Tom King, saw Lopez winning, with scores of 40-36, and 39-37 twice.

This writer had a similar score of 39-37—just for Holguin-Gutierrez.

‘Spitfire’ Piar debuts

Following in the footsteps of his brother James, who debuted last year, Sammy Piar (1-0, 1 KO), entered the pro ranks by proving himself another Piar spitfire, crushing easy Espanola foe Rick Chavez (0-1) in a round-and-a-half.

No fault of Piar, his opponent, but if the New Mexico Athletic Commission doesn’t do something about it, it looks like there’s something else Espanola is going to be known for, soon—and it ain’t low riders or heroin overdoses. It’s “meat.”

One of two Espanola, late-sub, pro-debuting “fighters,” Chavez proved he had absolutely no business being in the ring.

Piar used Chavez as a punching bag through the first round, pecking away at the defenseless body before him. In the second, Piar picked up his pace bombing away with increasingly harder shots until Referee Rocky Burke, to his credit, stepped between the two and waved it off at 1:27.

The 19-year-old Piar said he figured out early that Chavez wasn’t going to give him much of a fight.

“I was hitting him easy,” he said, “but I thought I’d take my time and see what it was like for a couple rounds, without the headgear. It feels good, real good to be pro.”

Montoya creams puff

After Albuquerque’s Donnell Wade pulled out with one excuse or another, Denver super middleweight, weighing in soft at light-heavy, Mike Montoya, Jr. (1-0, 1 KO) was paired up with the impaired Alejandro Aguilar (0-1), of Espanola.

With Montoya a well-seasoned, very experienced amateur, and Aguilar, never having fought a single amateur bout, let alone, never having laced up a pair of gloves once in his life, this bout was a mismatch the New Mexico Athletic Commission should’ve nixed.

Simply put, it was an awful fight.

Montoya toyed with his foe a bit, having figured out early (in the first couple seconds) that anything he threw, would land. Nearly tripping over his feet a dozen times, Aguilar was battered around by jabs, until, Montoya moved in for the ridiculously easy kill over his no-defense-no-skill-no-nada foe.

With his opponent bloody, covering up, pulling away, and, helpless, Montoya battered him down until Ref Burke stepped in to stop the slaughter.

Sanchez-Priest opens show

A pair of Albuquerque middleweights, Carlos Sanchez (1-0), from Henry’s Golden Gloves camp, and Matt “Killbilly” Priest (0-1), from the FIT-NHB Gym, opened the card on the right note, fighting a toe-to-toe battle for four rounds.

For the first two rounds, most at ringside were ready to tell MMA fighter Priest to go back to the cage, but in the third, it was apparent that he and trainer Arleen Sanchez had not spent their time practicing rear naked choke holds for this fight.

On the other hand, Sanchez, who really belongs at a lighter weight, showed he’s got the goods to be a good pro—just not the stamina.

In the first two rounds, it was all Sanchez; in the last two, it was all Priest.

Sanchez pressured and stalked the jabbing, retreating Priest in the first, flooring him with a big right in the final 30 seconds. Showing heart, Priest got back up.

Round two was the same as round one, Sanchez pressuring Priest, eating a few jabs, a right or two, but dominating the fight and sealing his round with another knockdown, this time with a big left upstairs, in the neutral corner.

The fight underwent a major reversal in the third and fourth, Sanchez fading quickly and ‘Killbilly’ Priest coming out energized, new and improved. Showing solid footwork—and no, the former cage fighter wasn’t kickboxing—Priest danced around the slow, plodding Sanchez, popping him with jabs and hitting him with more punches than an MMA fighter has any right to know about. Uppercuts, body shots—you name it—landed on Sanchez, who, only occasionally was able to get off a shot for his lack of stamina.

After four it was a no-brainer: two rounds apiece, but the two knockdowns making the difference. All three judges were right on the money for the first and only time Saturday night, scoring it 38-36 Sanchez.

Etcetera

With “world-famous” ring announcer Mike Adams out of town, Dennis “D.C.” Chavez, known for his work on amateur boxing shows, made his pro debut in the ring.

The crowd was rife with pro fighters. Joaquin Zamora, looking well-trained for his fight next week with Ray Sanchez III, was at the ringside, alongside undefeated Austin Trout. Also in attendance: “Mad” Max Heyman, who is in paramedic school, Monica Lovato, Archie Ray Marquez, Marcos Acosta (looking fit for his fight next week against Ricky Vasquez) and Alan Sanchez.

Juan Romero Promotions should be back with another card in November.

  # # #