It’s been a banner year for the Bound Boxing Academy

You talk about having a great year, that’s just what the Bound Boxing Academy Boxing Team has had in 2015. On June 13th, 16 year-old Andrea “The Boss” Medina defeated Lupe Gutierrez, the defending 132 pound world champion at the USA Amateur Boxing Junior Olympic Tournament. When we add that victory to the other three National Title victories, we have “The Boss” with a total of four National Titles. Impressive is an understatement. 

Andrea “The Boss” Medina an inspiration to all at the Bound Boxing Academy.

Then, you have their Pro team of Jvon Wallace and Amaris “Diamond Girl” Quintana plus the rest of the Bound Boxing Academy boxing team which has dominated all comers in the Amateur ranks. It has gotten to the point where their boxing team is now unbeatable at home. On Friday evening, the Juan Medina Jr./Edgar Sandoval/Andrea Medina led boxing team of Juan Medina III, Julian “The Mexican” Rojas, Christian Rivera and Gael “El Desastre” Meza finally lost their first bout of 2015. With a total of 14 Boxing Clubs participating in the Friday, December 11th show, coming from all over – as far north as Los Angeles, as far south as Tijuana and as far east as El Centro, it was bound to happen on such a stellar night of Amateur boxing. 

In Bout #1, they had 13-year-olds Michael Negrete (75 lbs., 10 -2) of the Baja Boxing Club returning for a rematch with Juan Medina III (79.2 lbs., Open division) of the host gym, the Bound Boxing Academy. With the fists flying, you could see referee Alberto “Cookie” Ramos was being extra diligent in monitoring the punches being thrown. After Negrete took four powerful blows to the head, Ramos stepped in to issue an 8-count. Upset at the stoppage, Negrete gave Ramos that look of “are you kidding me?” and began fluttering his gloves. Then, in the second round, again with both boxers throwing hard shots to the head, Negrete lost his balance and his glove touched the canvas. Once again, Ramos stopped the bout to issue Negrete a standing 8-count and again Negrete was shaking his gloves to show his displeasure. In the end, there was no doubt, Medina had beaten Negrete for the second straight time.

In Bout #1 we see Juan Medina III (blue shirt) winding up and using his full leverage to clobber his opponent Michael Negrete. (bottom, right) Negrete is adamant that referee Alberto Ramos had no reason to issue him an 8-count. Photos: Jim Wyatt

At the conclusion of Bout #1, Juan Medina (r) confidently awaits the announcement of his victory over the less than pleased Michael Negrete.

In Bout #2, they had 15 year-olds Diego Demara (119 lbs., 10 bouts) of Baja Boxing taking on Jorge Chavez (119 lbs., 6 bouts) from the National City CYAC. As in Bout #1, the punches came at lightning fast speeds and in this one Chavez gets the win by TKO.

In both photos we see the powerful, free-swinging Jorge Chavez (blue gloves) coming at Diego Demara (red gloves) to clobber him with his solid left hooks.

At the conclusion of Bout #2, we see Jorge Chavez (r) having his arm raised in victory by referee Alberto “Cookie” Ramos after defeating the game Diego Demara.

Bout #3 featured 16 year-old Gabriela Gallegos (155 lbs., 10 bouts) of Team Garcia of Los Angeles, Calif. going up against Citlalli Ortiz (154 lbs. 4 bouts) of the Lee Espinoza Coachella Boxing Club, Coachella, Calif. The shorter Ortiz came at Gallegos in Tyson-like fashion landing power shots to both the head and body to earn an unanimous decision. Throughout their bout, Ortiz amazed the crowd by taking one punch in order to deliver two or even three of her own.

Just as in the male bouts, the young ladies, Gabriela Gallegos (red gloves) of Team Garcia, Los Angeles and Citlalli Ortiz (blue gloves) of the Lee Espinoza Coachella Boxing Club, Coachella, their punches came hard and fast. Photos: J. Wyatt

At the conclusion of Bout #3, we see Citlalli Ortiz (r) having her arm raised in victory by referee Hondo Fontan after she defeated Gabriella “Gabby” Gallegos (l).

Bout #4 featured a chess match between two accomplished boxers, 17 year-old Brandon Cruz (126 lbs., 16 bouts) from the ABC Mongoose Gym of San Diego taking on 18 year-old Erik West (123.6 lbs., Open division) from the Lee Espinoza Coachella Valley Boxing Club. This was one of those matches where the boxers were both lean and tall and their boxing styles were almost identical. Thus, you had repeated momentum swings. After weathering these two low blows from West, Cruz remained stouthearted and went on to win by an unanimous decision.

Back and forth they went, Brandon Cruz (red gloves) and Erik West (blue gloves).

At the conclusion of Bout #4, we see referee Hondo Fontan raising the arm of the victorious Brandon Cruz (l) after his defeat Erik West (r). Photos: Jim Wyatt

In Bout #5, they had two 9-year-olds Isaiah Bernal (80.6 lbs., 2 bouts) of Romo’s Boxing, El Centro, Calif. taking on Gael Meza (79.6 lbs., 4 bouts) of the Bound Boxing Academy, Chula Vista, Calif. Bernal’s strategy of darting in and out to deliver these power shots to Meza’s head, was masterful. Meza caught on by the third round and made a valiant effort to pull out the win but it was too little too late.

In Bout #5 we saw Isaiah Bernal (red gloves) and Gael Meza (blue gloves) often going at each other like football players with their heads clashing.

At the conclusion of Bout #5, it was Isaiah Bernal (l) having his arm raised in victory by referee Alberto Ramos after he defeated the always tough Gael Meza (r).

In Bout #6, they had 11 year-old Fernando Lopez (80 lbs., 4 bouts) of the Nevarez Boxing & Training Center, Vista, Calif. going up against 10 year-old Christian Rivera (80 lbs., 2-1) from Bound Boxing. Rivera must have been watching the previous bout because his strategy was very similar to Bernal’s. What he did was unload a few hard punches and then pull back out of Lopez’s range, do his damage and then disappear. Or when Lopez went on the attack, Rivera set him up for the hard counters.

At the conclusion of Bout #6, it was Christian Rivera (r) having his arm raised in victory by referee Alberto Ramos after outboxing the tough Fernando Lopez (l).

There’s nothing better than having a large group of family and friends on hand to support you and on Friday night, nobody had a bigger following that Christian Rivera shown here with his proud father (r).

Bout #7 featured 13 year-old Anthony Hernandez (88.6 lbs., 5 bouts) of the Nevarez Boxing & Training Center going up against 12 year-old Julian “The Mexican” Rojas (88.2 lbs., 5 bouts ) of Bound Boxing. Now, if you can picture this: you have one of those 10 speed, 1000 watt food mixers the ones they use to whip pancake batter and you set the speed to high and the whisks start going so fast the batter flies in every direction. That’s the way I saw this bout. Both Hernandez and Rojas were throwing these lethal punches at such a fast pace someone was bound to get hurt. With Rojas being the more accurate of the two, his wild punches landed and the ref, Cookie Ramos, knew to stand close to save Hernandez from getting hurt. With Hernandez being on the receiving end of these round house punches, he ended up receiving three straight 8-counts which led to an early first round stoppage.

Right from the outset Julian “The Mexican” Rojas (blue gloves) went on the attack.

Before long referee Alberto Ramos was issuing Anthony Hernandez (red gloves) one 8-count after another until he reached the third 8-count and called a halt to the bout.

At the conclusion of Bout #7, we had (l to r) Anthony Hernandez, pro boxer and head boxing coach Brian Nevarez plus Julian “The Mexican” Rojas pose for one last photo.

Just two days later, Julian “The Mexican” Rojas was celebrating his 13th birthday.

Bout #8 featured 23 year-old Jaime Suazo (132.8 lbs., 3 bouts) from the Hector Gil Boxing Club, Oceanside, Calif. going up against 21 year-old Jesus Corral (132.4 lbs., 2 bouts) from The Pride of San Diego, Bonita, Calif. In round one, both men landed some big shots to the head and Corral benefitted when Suazo was issued an 8-count. In round two, it was Suazo’s turn to benefit from an 8-count issued to Corral. In the final round with Corral tiring, he was again issued an 8-count plus Suazo landed this big overhand right just as the bell sounded. With two of the three judges favoring Corral, a little extra time was taken to check and recheck the scores. After the celebrity ring announcer, Amaris Quintana announced the winner, you could hear many in the crowd rumbling their disapproval.

At the conclusion of Bout #8, Jaime Suazo (l) was almost certain he had done enough to get the win. Instead the victory went to his opponent Jesus Corral (r).

Bout #9 featured 20 year-old Anthony Franco (155.4 lbs., 9-1) from The Arena, Point Loma, San Diego, Calif. taking on 17 year-old Josh Rivera (157 lbs., Open Division) from Tiger Smalls Boxing, Mission Valley, San Diego, Calif. With Rivera being the brawler and Franco the more polished boxer, this one hinged on whether Rivera could land that one big knockout blow. Since it never happened, Franco won easily by scoring on his multiple combinations.

Bout #9 was your typical boxer, Anthony Franco (red gloves) going up against your typical brawler Josh Rivera (blue gloves). Photos: Jim Wyatt

(photo, bottom) At the conclusion of Bout #9 we see referee Hondo Fontan raising the arm of the victorious Anthony Franco.

Bout #10 featured 20-year-old Martin Ramirez (170 lbs., Open Division) from the Mariscal Boxing Club of Tijuana, B. C., Mexico taking on 25 year-old Robert Lartique (175.2 lbs., 5 bouts) from the Gladiator School of Boxing, Spring Valley, Calif. Early on, it appeared Lartique, with his devastating power, was in complete control, especially after an early 8-count was issued to Ramirez. That 8-count must have been a wake up call for Ramirez because from that moment on, he got much busier and stayed on his opponent until the ref issued Lartique an 8-count. By the third round, Lartique was running low on petrol and Ramirez was pounding Lartique who was either against the ropes or in his corner until eventually the ref called a halt to this onslaught.

Within the first minute referee Hondo Fontan had already issued Martin Ramirez (red trunks) an 8-count. A short time later Ramirez was doing his payback and had his opponent Robert Lartique trapped in the corner and was banging away.

The one big punch that suddenly turned the bout around was this hard right cross to the side of Robert Lartique’s head. He then went from being the aggressor to being the defender.

At the conclusion of Bout #10, we see referee Hondo Fontan raising the arm of the victorious Martin Ramirez after he scored the TKO victory over Robert Lartique (r).

In Bout #11, it was 26 year-old Alejandro “Leyva” Martinez (142.6 lbs., 3 bouts) of the Nevarez Boxing & Training Center going up against 18 year-old Martinez Tapia (151 lbs., 5 bouts) from the Mariscal Boxing Club of Tijuana. From the opening bell Martinez was the aggressor and landed several hard shots on the durable Tapia. By the second round, Martinez was still the man in charge but Tapia had become more confident and became a defensive whiz. With the third round being even, Martinez won the judges over based on the early rounds.

In Bout #11 we see both boxers receiving instructions from their coaches, Alejandro “Leyva” Martinez (bottom, left) and Martinez Tapia (top, left).

At the conclusion of the final bout, Bout #11, we see referee Hondo Fontan raising the arm of the victorious Alejandro Martinez of the Nevarez Boxing Club in Vista, Calif.

Next up on the docket is the show presented by the Baja Boxing Club which is schedule for Saturday, December 19, 2015 at the Williams Moreno Gym in Calexico, Calif. The first bout is scheduled to start at 1 p.m.