Local fighters put on one heck of a show at the Show Palace

After defeating Karl Santiago in dramatic fashion, the show’s hostesses rushed to have their photo taken with the awe-inspiring Mr. Erin Beach. Photo: J. Wyatt

Thursday, June 27, 2013

Last night’s show at the Show Palace in Oceanside, CA was billed as Fight for your Legacy, a combination of Boxing sharing the ring with three MMA bouts. And like the theme suggests, each competitor gave it all they had to leave a lasting impression.

Insiders mentioned that the local promoter, Ari Soltani of Pars Entertainment, also had a battle on his hands. The way the “day of” problems mounted up, it’s a wonder the normally calm, cool and collective promoter could deal with it without having a nervous breakdown.

For instance, on his fight card he had the 32 year-old heavyweight boxer, 6’5” Matt McKinney scheduled to make his professional debut. At first, they had John Rizzo penciled in to be his opponent. Mr. Rizzo ended up being hauled off to jail.

Next, they worked with Anthony Hinson to be McKinney’s opponent but soon discovered he had been knocked out in his last two bouts and required a doctor’s clearance with a favorable MRI. Not one but two doctors turned him down.

Finally, they lined up Jack May to fill the slot. As they say, the third times the charm, right? On Thursday, the day of the fight, someone said, “May? Ain’t that the guy we saw getting on the Greyhound bus headed for Vegas?”

In the end, Soltani ended up with more officials than he had fighters, a rare accomplishment.

Even the ring set up had its complications. The hustling crew finished their work just minutes before the start of the show. At 9 p.m., after striding or in this case sprinting over the many hurdles, the lovely Lea Love of Oceanside sang her rendition of the National Anthem to open the show.

(right) Lea Love of Oceanside, CA sings our nation’s National Anthem. On July 5th, she’ll be at the Crossroads with the Originalites, John Givez, PSMoove and DJ Beaman for her EP Release Party – Straight Flexin’ at 2237 S. El Camino Real, Oceanside, CA. (left) the lovely Ring Card Girls were like eye candy for the gentlemen in attendance at the Show Palace.

In Bout #1, Abasai Lopez (shown here on the bottom with his arm trapped) started off strong but then in the second round his opponent Leo Franklin took center stage with his more accomplished ground game. All photos: Jim Wyatt

In the above photo collage (top, l to r) we have Leo Franklin saluting his fans after the win. Then it’s Abasai Lopez (r) with his buddy Kieshaun Hill (l). (below) Leo Franklin continues to celebrate his victory with an assist from the lovely ring card girls.

In Bout #1, an MMA bout, it was Abasai Lopez of Costa Mesa going up against Leo Franklin (1-3) from the World Gym in San Diego.

At the outset, Lopez was very affective as a striker and after landing several hard blows, Franklin’s face became a bloody mess. By Round #2, all that changed as Franklin started mixing things up with both takedowns and his own affective striking. With each of Franklin’s impressive takedowns, the crowd cheered wildly. By the way he was manhandling Lopez you had to figure the submission victory was dead ahead. It didn’t come easy, but Franklin did get his submission after applying the dreaded armbar.

In Bout #2, it was Kieshaun Hill (bottom, right) getting the win over tough guy Art Rivas (left). Referee Jason Herzog (center) is shown raising Hill’s arm in victory.

In Bout #2, an MMA bout featuring the big boys, super heavyweights, it was Art Rivas from Bas Ruttens’ Elite MMA in Westlake Village, CA going up against the much taller Kieshaun Hill of Victory MMA in Point Loma.

In this one, the only thing Rivas showed was his high tolerance for pain. Hill did eventually tire after throwing so many punches to the head, so many to the body and going with the knee to the head. The unanimous decision victory for Hill was never in doubt.

In the above collage we see Jesus Lopez taking an early seat on the canvas after Victor Medina caught him flush in Round #1. Lopez then spent Rounds 2 thru 4 making up for the mistake. (bottom left) By the time Round #4 came around, Medina (l) was holding on for dear life.

Bout #3 featured a middleweight boxing clash between Jesus Lopez (1-0) of Tanos Boxing of Oceanside, CA going up against the hard throwing Victor Medina (3-4-0) from Los Angeles, CA. 

Soon after the introductions and before most people had even settled into their seats, Medina caught Lopez with his hands down and threw a solid left which caught Lopez on the chin. The embarrassed Lopez was up in an instant.

The surprise, flash knockdown certainly had Lopez’s attention. He then spent the entire, rest of the fight working like a demon to make up for this early gaffe.

(top, right) Bout #4 lasted all of 38 seconds after Ricky Gutierrez (l) began launching these extra, hard shots to the head and body of Pablo Pantaleon (r). (bottom left) Pantaleon, on his back with his legs twisted under him, tried to get up but to no avail. (bottom right) Ricky Gutierrez celebrates his win with his proud father.

As you can see, the celebration of Ricky Gutierrez’s victory lasted a good while.

In Bout #4, it was Pablo Pantaleon in his Pro-debut taking on Ricky Gutierrez (1-1) from San Marcos, CA who at this stage has finally recovered both mentally and physically from that dreadful night three years ago when his right leg was shattered by a bullet fired by his jealous ex-trainer Mark Diaz, the same night Peter Moreno was wounded and Hector Gill was shot dead. 

During his long recovery, which included six months in the hospital, Gutierrez had to deal with almost constant pain. Friends claim he’s now in the best shape of his life. A normal workout for Gutierrez lasts six hours. 

He’s virtually fought his way back into shape by making these pilgrimages to the boxing meccas of Los Angeles and Maywood, CA where a great number of the best train and spar. He was sparring against people like Mercito Gesta and Chris Avalos. With all the extra rehab work, his legs have become as strong as tree stumps.

Following all this build up, it took Gutierrez only 38 seconds to finish off Pablito Pantaleon. After some ferocious pummeling, he had Mr. Pantaleon languishing, hopelessly against the ropes, until referee Tony Crebs stepped forward to stop the fight.

The excitement in Bout #5 between Erin Beach and Karl Santiago happened so fast it was all a blur. Beach went from almost being declared out on his feet to winning the bout in less than a minute. How Beach (bottom right) recovered from the blows to the head is still a mystery.

In Bout #5, an MMA bout, it was the 30 year-old, 6’2” Erin Beach of the Alliance Training Center in Chula Vista, (4-1 in MMA, 1-1 as a Pro Boxer) being challenged by the 23 year-old, upstart Karl Santiago (2-1 in MMA) from the Victory MMA gym in Point Loma.

Whereas Santiago has been competing for just two years, Beach, a veteran of five campaigns which include bouts in Bellator and Total Combat, trains with some of the top fighters in the world at the Alliance Training Center in Chula Vista plus he retains his MMA teaching credentials by running several classes at the Black House Team Noguiera Gym.

As expected, the action went fast and furious and before anyone knew it, the quicker Santiago had Beach on his back to deliver these hammer-like punches. One such punch opened a two inch gash under Beach’s right eye and the blood came pouring out. While attempting to get loose from Santiago’s top position, the fighters soon found themselves outside the ropes.

At that point referee Jason Herzog stopped the action and asked the fighters to come to the center of the ring and assume the very same position. In this brief period, say 12-15 seconds, the once groggy Beach regained his thought processes and got himself back into the fray. Within the next 25 to 30 seconds, Beach found himself in position to apply a guillotine choke and as a consequence Santiago had to tap out. The quickness of the finish was mind boggling; reminiscent of a scene from one of those Bruce Lee movies.

Out of respect, both fighters went out of their way to joke around about the fight and then congratulate each other for putting up such a battle. The bout, with it’s sudden momentum swing was simply amazing.   

Now the downer

At intermission a rap artist by the name of “KT from Escondido,” who must be part peacock, part parrot since he repeats every word 6-8 times, performed his schtick. Not wanting to show any complicity with someone of this ilk, I must mention my disgust for his infantile lyrics which he spewed out while shuffling about the ring. How filthy? The comedian Richard Pryor would have been offended by his gratuitous use of the F-word which he rapped over and over while letting us know his “shi+s raw – it’s popping” and he plans to smoke weed till his lungs collapse. 

At least with a parrot, you have an opportunity to line the bottom of the cage with newspaper.

Still working on a promising career, KT of Escondido needs to do some work to enlarge his working vocabulary so he can clean up his lyrics and worry less about the gangster image.

To be fair, we did do some research and actually found a more suitable mix called: A part of nature on which he does a creditable sing along with a very attractive woman who does the hook for the hip hop artist Jevon. Enjoy!