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‘Kidd’-glove treatment
Former champ Julio Diaz spars way to easy decision over Trejo on Halloween Hardrock card
Ringside report and photos by Chris Cozzone
- FightWireImages.com
There weren’t too many scary moments at last night’s Halloween card, promoted by Top Rank and televised on Telefutura at the Hardrock Hotel in Las Vegas.
Unless you count the ghost town crowd, and a spill to the canvas by co-featured Miguel Angel Garcia, the principal thrills of the drama-less night of distance bouts were provided by the preliminary pugilists.
One such fighter entered the ring with a lion headdress, another in a skull mask. Yet, others were not only garbed as boxers, but they actually tried to hurt their opponents during their respective bouts.
 That was not the case in the main event, in which former lightweight champ Julio “The Kidd” Diaz handled, or sparred with, gutsy-but-overmatched Fernando Trejo over ten rounds for a lopsided decision.
Losing three in a row now, Trejo, too small and safe for the rebounding former champ, provided the perfect opposition for “The Kidd,” who did not take advantage of a good thing, preferring instead to work on strategy, round after round. In fact, Trejo did a good job in making the fight look competitive, when it really wasn’t, and he was, in turn, rewarded by Diaz, who had on his ‘Kidd’ gloves for most of the fight.
Early on, Diaz let Trejo plod forward, catching him coming in and picking away from the outside. Trejo applied more pressure in the third, but Diaz worked on body shots. Switching up from rightie to leftie throughout the match, Diaz waltzed while Trejo walked forward, unable to do anything to turn the fight around.
 There was plenty of blood, however, though none of it resulted from punches. In the sixth, Diaz was sliced on his left eyelid.
In the final two rounds, the sparse crowd was jolted awake by activity in the ring. Trejo, finally desperate, poured on the pressure, forcing Diaz to come out of his dance routine in an attempt to actually hurt his foe. And hurt him, Diaz did, finally, slightly staggering Trejo in the ninth and tenth with fast combinations.
Trejo survived, of course, only to lose drastically on the scorecards, 100-90 and 99-91 twice.
With the win, Diaz ups his record to 36-4 (26 KOs).
Trejo falls to 30-15-4 (18 KOs).
 Garcia floored in decision win
Co-featured for the first time, featherweight Miguel Angel Garcia, of Oxnard, Calif., might’ve escaped Halloween night with a win, but he did not look like a world beater against Colombian Walter Estrada, who nearly copped the win with a kayo in round four.
For most of the fight, this looked like one of Telefutura’s worst televised bouts of the year, the two fighters merely circling one another and lulling those ringside asleep. If there had been enough people in attendance, there might’ve even been booing.
A bit of blood perked up the fight in the third, though it came from a cut on the side of Estrada’s head from a clash of noggins. Following the sight of blood, there was a few precious moments of fighting—and I mean moments.
The crowd went back to sleep and the fighters, back to a zombie shuffle, until, in round four, the southpaw Estrada unloaded the single best punch of the night—a straight left—that left Garcia on the seat of his pants. But Estrada did not press to finish and Garcia survived.
The fight perked up slightly in the fifth, Garcia trying to jab and work his way inside with hooks and uppercuts, with success, and Estrada content to throw his right jab, or reach for another big left.
Another unintentional headbutt brought more blood to Estrada’s face in the seventh, and the fight slowed back down to a crawl through the eighth.
Still undefeated, Garcia, 15-0 (12 KOs), picked up the ‘W’ with scores of 77-74 and 76-75 twice; Estrada drops to 30-7 (20 KOs).
 Opener
The highlight of the night was the ring entrance of Las Vegas lightweight Sharif Bogere (4-0, 2 KOs), who came into the ring with a huge lion’s head perched atop his skull. He had the fight won there, against Carson City’s Mike Peralta (4-4, 1 KO).
Bogere took his time in the first, but floored Peralta early in the second. Though hurt, Peralta proved game, fighting back.
In the third, he was down again. Once again surviving, Peralta rebounded, scoring a slip-of-a-knockdown over Bogere in the final round only to lose with scores of 39-35.
Bogere-Peralta opened the show, at 4:30, but three more prelims closed the house down after Telefutura shut down for the night.
Closers
 In the first, featherweight Jerry “The Corpus Christi Kid” Belmontes (5-0, 1 KO) danced and pecked away at Guadalupe De Leon (7-4, 4 KOs), of Mission, Tex., for a lopsided six-round unanimous decision.
Though staggered in the second, De Leon took everything Belmontes had to offer, and the fight was something of a sparring snoozer.
In a six-round super featherweight bout, Las Vegas’ Diego Magdaleno (7-0, 3 KOs) outhustled Travis Thompson (3-3-1, 2 KOs), of Pottstown, Pa., for a shutout four-round decision.
Though unable to take out his foe, Magdaleno, at least, fought like he wanted to hurt his opponent, and he aggressively hurled himself at the game Thompson through all four rounds.
In the final bout of the night, super lightweight Anthony Lenk (5-0, 3 KOs) pitched a shutout to L.A.’s Alex Rufino Flores (1-1).
The fight was actually competitive, and the tougher-than-expected Flores gave as good as he got, during several heated exchanges. Lenk’s consistent pressure and straight left hands, however, edged each round for the hometowner. Scores were 40-36 on all three cards.
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