Another classic Chris Martin victory in the 2010 Coors Light Boxing Series

At this point in his career, Christopher Martin’s confidence level is sky high. Photo: Jim Wyatt

Once again the Four Points by Sheraton, San Diego crowd was treated to an amazing performance by Christopher “The San Diego Kid” Martin as he successfully defended his California Super Bantamweight Title against Mexicali’s Ruben “Finito” Lopez. Lopez managed to hang in there for the first three rounds but the tide soon changed as they neared the end of round four when some wiseacre in the crowd called out for an uppercut and Martin fulfilled the heckler’s wish as if on cue. From that point on, Lopez was in trouble.

While Martin looked slick, quick and accurate with every punch, Lopez had begun to slow down from the accumulation of blows, blows that would have stopped most fighters. Showing a solid chin, Lopez was getting hit from every conceivable angle. Each time Lopez’s head snapped back, you could hear the ooh’s and aah’s from the patrons. Martin’s punches to the body and head found their mark consistently.

In the latter part of round six, Lopez went down but somehow managed to get up and finish the round. In between rounds, Lopez’s corner discussed  their fighter’s probabilities and convinced him to throw in the towel. Seconds later, Lopez’s corner gave the nod to the referee for the early stoppage. Martin had now scored three TKO victories in a row and ran his unbeaten record to 17 wins.

When questioned later about his future plans, Martin emphasized that he’s now ready to take on much stiffer competition and travel to take a shot at a title. For a second time, we heard him mention the name Rico Ramos as a potential opponent. Ramos beat Martin when the two were amateurs.

In the co-main event, it was the much anticipated rematch of a previous draw between Amaris “La Reina” Quintana and Melissa Mc Morrow which took place on June 4, 2009. Early on Quintana seemed sharper and landed her stiff jab plus several sharp left hooks to McMorrow’s face. However, as the fight continued, Quintana found that she couldn’t slow down the shorter Mc Morrow. As long as McMorrow had Quintana backing up, McMorrow felt she could win the battle on the inside.

In the following round, the ladies again fought non-stop and once again there was no clear cut winner. In Press Row, the gentleman from Sweet Science.com said McMorrow won the third round, while Ivan Orozco of the Union Tribune called it a draw. In our view, Quintana had won the round after landing more of what we like to call “the telling blows.” It was as if the judges had been looking over our shoulders, one gave McMorrow the nod, another saw it dead even and Fritz Warner agreed with our assessment calling it for Quintana based on the amount of those power punches.

Chris Chatman of City Boxing, a former San Diego based sailor and Chicago transplant, stopped Steve Macomber of Lakeside, Ca. at the 1:02 mark of the 4th round. Referee Jose Cobian counted Macomber out and awarded Chatman his 7th win, 3rd victory by KO. Once again Macomber came into the bout several pounds over the contracted weight and was fined 20 per cent of his purse.

The fight card opened with Armenia’s Artur Bernetsyan (now 2-0) taking on Fairfield, California’s Luis Sanchez in his pro debut. Luis is the older brother of welterweight Alan Sanchez (5-1).The hard punching southpaw from Armenia wasted no time in establishing his power and was usually the first one to get off. The end came at 1:02 in round four when referee Tony Crebs stopped the bout to award Bernetsyan his second win, his first by knockout.

The night’s festivities began after ring announcer Benny Ricardo called for a memorial 10 count for several members of the boxing community who recently passed away.

Lorraine Chargin died Tuesday, April 6, 2010 at the age of 79. She was married to boxing promoter Don Chargin for 49 years and they co-promoted hundreds of fights together.

Another tragedy occurred Wednesday night when 52-year-old boxing trainer Hector Gil was shot and killed at the Pacific Coast Boxing Gym in Vista, Ca. Fellow trainer Peter Moreno, 56, and 21-year-old boxer Ricky Gutierrez were also shot but are expected to make a full recovery.