From A to Z
Antillon & Zamora batter foes, Attah & Sanchez, to TKO wins

Ringside report & photos by Chris Cozzone

Proving he is every pound the contender he is at lightweight, Urbano Antillon made a strong claim five pounds south, returning to 130 pounds after several years, to snatch up two minor belts by battering Daniel Attah all over the ring before a less-than-full house last night at Isleta Casino & Resort in Albuquerque, N.M.

With all but two fights going the distance, it was an early night for the Top Rank/Prime Time-promoted, Telefutura-televised card—especially after a ten-round fight with undefeated Demetrius Hopkins was nixed at the weigh-in, due to the former Golden Boy’s golden child weighing six or more pounds over the limit.

It was a night of statements—for Antillon, and for local welter Joaquin Zamora, who, in an upset that wasn’t really an upset, in the local picture, might have ended the career of Ray Sanchez III.

In the main event, Antillon’s real battle had been waged the day before.

The contender from Mayfield, Calif., who’d struggled for three hours to make the 130-pound limit, had a much harder challenge at the scales than he did against Attah, who was making a return after a year-and-a-half layoff.

Attah’s only real competitive round was the first. Antillon pressured Attah to the ropes for the first half of the opening stanza. But midway through, Attah came alive, countering with lead lefts when the two opened up mid-ring.

Looking like a pair of Siamese twins joined at the foreheads, the two banged it out in the center of the ring for nearly all of the second round. Playing Antillon’s game, the game Attah was at the receiving end of Antillon’s blazing, short punches. Cracking through Attah’s guard and smacking his ribs with precise body blows, Antillon had Attah in trouble by the time the round was completed.

Attah came out boxing in round three, but after Antillon trapped him against the ropes, he stopped moving—and it was no contest from then on. Antillon blasted away with his brutal body assault, flooring Attah in his own corner in the last minute. The Nigerian beat the count but was hanging on at the end of the round.

There was little left from Attah at the start of round four. Antillon pinned his foe against the ropes and issued a brutal battering, bouncing his gloves off Attah’s head like he was playing handball, and bombing away at the body. Finally, Attah dropped to a knee where Referee Rocky Burke started his count. Before reaching ten, Burke waved it off, at 1:13.

“He was tough and had a good punch,” said Antillon. “It took me the first to figure him out.”

Antillon is clear what his next step is.

“I want a world title,” he says.

“It’s up to my promoter, but whether the shot comes at 130 or 135, I’m ready for it.”

With the win, Antillon, now 24-0, 17 KOs, claims the NABF and NABO super featherweight belts.

Attah drops to 24-5-1, 8 KOs.

III in III: The Arrival of Joaquin Zamora

While local hardcore fans were not at all surprised that Joaquin Zamora, of Pecos, defeated Albuquerque’s Ray Sanchez III, the ease in which he did so was somewhat shocking.

What was also surprising was the lack of crowd—only half-filled by the time the two New Mexican southpaw welters made their way into the ring.

For years, local fans had demanded that Sanchez fight one of the top welters in his state. The heavy-handed Lee Montoya was avoided for years while Sanchez was building his record because the Sanchez camp, looking beyond their own state, had vowed never to fight another New Mexican.

That is, until Zamora.

Little-known outside New Mexico, Zamora had fought his way up the ladder and into top ten WBC contention. It was this top ten rating thought to be at stake when the Sanchez camp took the fight—but two days before the bout was officially announced, Zamora’s name fell off the ratings due to a year’s inactivity.

Leading up to the fight, the local fight community talked of little else but Zamora and Sanchez, though few came to witness it live. Those that showed up were, for the most part, pro-Zamora, and they cheered on the fighter many consider the state’s best kept secret.

Though a 2½-to-1 favorite on the uninformed Internet sportsbooks, Sanchez entered the ring second, with a mixed half-cheering, half-booing crowd.

Based on appearances, the fight was half-won before the first punch was thrown. Though both welters, this fight had a contract limit of 152. Zamora’s six-pack abs and solid frame was a stark contrast to Sanchez’s untoned physique. Just as noticeable was the difference in expressions, Zamora’s air of confidence pitted against Sanchez looking like he was somewhere else. His corner, too, usually rowdy and pumping the crowd, lacked steam, as if they were attending a funeral instead of a fight.

With all that said, Sanchez, with the apparent game plan to hit and move, still pulled it off in round one. Ending his year-layoff, Zamora showed a bit of rust through a first round. Exhibiting superior speed and throwing more punches, Sanchez outboxed Zamora for most of it. Showing patience, Zamora started to jab and move forward, but Sanchez’s busier right jab outworked him, with several straight lefts snaking through to land on the mark—though they were all taken well. A straight left in the last minute for Zamora landed, widening Sanchez’s eyes, but it was, otherwise, a round for the Duke City fighter.

Zamora increasingly upped the pressure as the seconds rolled by in round two, immediately changing the fight. Sanchez continued to move and jab, but the first time he was cut off and pinned against the ropes, he was in trouble. Zamora let the hands go and the first half-solid left hand that landed, rocked Sanchez, who turned his boxing plan into a survival game.

In the last 15 seconds of the round, Sanchez draped himself around the stronger Zamora, barely able to stand. And when the bell rang, he was not only bleeding from a cut over his right eye, but looking dazed, as if he’d already been through a war and not a half-dozen, not particularly devastating shots that Zamora had landed.

What had taken Julio Cesar Chavez, Jr. six rounds to accomplish, had been done with one good flurry of punches.

The end was near.

In complete control, Zamora reopened the cut with his first attack on a near-finished Sanchez, who, spent and spooked by Zamora’s strength and the blood seeping through his sliced brow, immediately sought to tie up, move and survive.

Barely a minute into the third, the Referee Stephen Blea called time and the ringside doc inspected the cut. The physician gave him the green light to continue but Sanchez told him his vision was blurry—which put an end to the fight.

It might also have put an end to Sanchez’s career.

Let it be said that for anyone who’s seen Sanchez in his earlier days, the comparison between now and then is appalling. The difference in speech and body language, confidence and obvious lack of durability, paints an alarming picture of a fighter in frighteningly fast decline, despite the young age of 25.

The consensus, locally, is in: He’s had a good run, but it’s time to hang up the gloves.

Sanchez would not comment, barring reporters from his dressing room.

Cutman Miguel Diaz talked, irate that the fight was stopped before he could work on the cut, but that was before it was known that it was Sanchez, not the ringside physician, who pulled the plug, admitting blurry vision.

Hopefully retired, Sanchez falls to 21-3, 15 KOs.

Zamora, on the other hand, will, hopefully, now get a chance to reach his prime. Rising to 16-2-1, 11 KOs, with the biggest win of his career, Zamora is expected to re-enter top ten contention.

“I felt a little rusty,” he said after the fight.

“I wasn’t looking for a knockout, but if it comes, it comes. But I thought it was going that way. I thought he was hurt.

“But I take nothing away from Ray. He’s a great fighter.”

Vasquez dominates Acosta

In another local showdown, between bantamweights, Las Cruces’ Ricky Vasquez (3-1-1, 1 KO) and Albuquerque’s Marcos “Li’l Lito” Acosta (2-1) fought the short swing on the televised portion of the card.

It was Vasquez all the way.

The two stood in front of each other in the first two rounds, with Vasquez countering beautifully with smashing left hooks, every time Acosta tried to go to the body. Big right leads from the Las Crucen left Acosta gun shy and a bit shell-shocked by the end of the second.

In the third and fourth, Vasquez continued to dominate, only by boxing and moving rather than standing and banging. Either way, it was Ricky’s ring, his cleaner shots, big rights and solid hooks too much for the reluctant Acosta.

Scores ranged from 40-37, twice, to 39-37, all for Vasquez.

NewMexicoBoxing/Fightnews (NMB/FN) had it 40-36 for Vasquez.

Marroquin works for win

In a six-round super bantam bout, undefeated Robert Marroquin (4-0, 3 KOs), of Dallas, had to work to keep his slate clean, against tough Gino Escamilla (5-4-1, 2 KOs), of Laredo, Tex.

Escamilla stayed at the end of Marroquin’s jab during the first, cruising around the perimeter of the ring while Marroquin sought to land his right behind a jab.

Unable to find his range and land the right, Escamilla’s unpredictable aggression edged him the second round. Wild overhand rights landed for him and he made an impossible target for the much taller Marroquin.

Finding Escamilla’s crouching too difficult to land a right, Marroquin settled for the top of his foe’s head, which scored him a knockdown. Escamilla bounced up from the canvas too soon, immediately falling into a rubbery-legged Zab Judah routine, but recovered to survive the count and round.

Escamilla was rattled again in the fourth with another top-o’-the-head shot, then shaken further with lead uppercuts. Still, Escamilla fought back, landing clean shots that, had they any pop behind ‘em, might’ve spoiled Marroquin’s night.

A cut appeared on Marroquin’s scalp in the fifth but the Dallas prospect continued to look for a knockdown, rocking Escamilla with rights in the sixth, but unable to stop the bout early.

All three scorecards read 59-54.

DiPace goes distance

In the closing fight of the night, Las Cruces hopeful, bantamweight Sammy DiPace (4-0, 3 KOs) poured on the punishment, but San Antone foe, Julio Valadez (2-1) held on ‘til the end.

Finally showing an improved defense, DiPace slowly applied the pressure in the first, trying to close the gap between his fists and Valadez’s fancy dancing.

Valadez was rocked at the end of the round, but it wasn’t until the second that he hit the canvas for the first time. Seeking to tie up his stronger opponent, and grabbing his right arm, Valadez left himself open to a left hook that dropped him on his butt. He made it up but was on serious survival mode from then on.

DiPace started to land big body shots in the second and third, one of which dropped Valadez again, in the final minute of the second. Yet another body blast might’ve put Valadez down a third time in the third round, but it was ruled otherwise.

No longer even firing back in the fourth, Valadez hugged and clinched and wore down the seconds, surviving DiPace’s near-relentless pressure.

Scores ranged from 40-33 twice to 39-32, all for DiPace.

With the two official knockouts, NMB/FN had it 40-32, for DiPace.

Baldo easy win for Ibarra

In the show’s curtain raiser, Houston junior welterweight Gerardo Ibarra (2-0, 2 KOs), had no problem with his Wyoming opponent, Richard Baldo (1-3, 1 KO).

Pursuing Baldo around the ring, landing straight rights and hooks downstairs, Ibarra floored Baldo twice in round one, twice in round two, before Referee Rocky Burke waved off the one-sided slaughter, at 1:10.

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