Marconi Auto Museum boxing show, no publicity necessary
(l to r) Hall of Fame boxer, former Lightweight World Champion, Ray “Boom-Boom” Mancini, former boxer, now co-manager of Israel Arellano, Saul Rios Carrasco and Hall of Fame boxer, 7x World Champion in 5 different weight divisions, Sugar Ray Leonard pose for photos prior to the 16th Marconi Auto Museum Fight Night.
Friday, March 14, 2014
Normally, when a boxing promoter has a show lined up, they want as much publicity as possible. For example, the promotion company for last Friday’s ESPN Friday Night Fights’ show at the Pala Resort & Casino hired themselves a local PR firm who at once printed up fight posters to be distributed throughout the county, arranged for TV interviews, scored more than a dozen articles on-line, plus they had several newspapers do feature articles.
In comparison, the Marconi Auto Museum Fight Night in Tustin, CA on Friday evening is an example of a promoter doing very little to attract attention to his event. They seemed to be downright secretive. So secretive they didn’t want to advertise their lowball price of $650 per ticket? And, for those patrons who were willing to dish out $25,000, they offered you an elevated table with seating for 10 people plus they had a celebrity sit at your table.
Among the celebrities in attendance were Artemio Reyes, Sugar Ray Leonard, Ray “Boom-Boom” Mancini, Mia St. John and Israel Vazquez.
They say life is all about the choices. On Friday afternoon, this boxing pundit had the option of either driving 88 miles north and paying $650 for the dinner/boxing show at the Marconi Automotive Museum and with my luck being assigned a seat between Gilbert Gottfried and Roseanne Barr’s ex Tom Arnold or staying put in San Diego to enjoy a free cookout with friends at Stinky’s backyard barbecue. Stinky (bottom, right) is the only person I know who can cook 12 hot dogs at the same time with his trusty garden rake. (below) His son Jimmy tried to match his father’s efforts by toasting yummy marshmallows on a tree branch.
For this boxing show, not one media outlet was alerted or given access to the weigh-ins on Thursday or the event on the following day. At the weigh-ins, there was one gentleman from the California State Athletic Commission and he had the whole weigh-in process completed in just 55 minutes.
On the eve of the show, it was discovered they were setting up tables and chairs for 350 guests which meant an approximate gross take for the dinner plus show in the range of $230,000 to $250,000.
Being inquisitive by nature, there were a great many questions which I felt needed answers. For instance, who was on this fight card? Perhaps a call to those intrusive folks of TMZ, the TV show that covers celebrity news and gossip, could shed some light on the subject.
Twenty-four hours after Friday night’s show, friends and family were still scrambling to get news of who fought whom and who won. We waited until St. Patty’s Day, Monday, March 17 to publish this article and still there was no mention anywhere of the fights taking place. Who were the referees? Who were the judges?
Who’s job is it to make certain the results from this California State Athletic Commission sanctioned boxing show are recorded? The people of BoxRec.com had no inkling that such an event took place. In comparison, the results from a boxing show held on the same night in Philadelphia at the Pennsylvania Metal Sheet Workers Union Hall were posted with BoxRec.com that same evening before 11 p.m. E.T.
Only after much probing of our multiple, inside sources were we able to gain the following:
As far as we can tell Israel Arellano (now 7-2-0, 6 KOs), of Chula Vista and training at the House of Boxing in Paradise Hills, lost by an unanimous decision to a gentleman from Puerto Rico by the name of Ken Alvarez (6-0-1 with 3 KOs).
In this one, it was Alvarez’s strategy to simply outpoint Arellano by darting in and out to land his quick combinations. When the going got rough, Alvarez held Arellano or kept his distance. Twice Arellano had a shot at taking Alvarez down, but failed to connect with that one telling blow.
Video shows Ken Alvarez knocking out William Lorenzo (2-13) back on 12-29-12
Photo left shows Israel Arellano sitting in the famous throne chair on the afternoon of his fight at the Marconi Auto Museum in Tustin, CA. (bottom, right) Arellano is joined by Lou Messina (l) his co-manager and Carlos Barragan Jr. (r) his trainer.
In the Main Event, they featured 20 year-old, welterweight Victor “Sina” Fonseca (8-2-1 with 6 KOs) of Tijuana going up against 23 year-old, Oscar Godoy (12-2-0, 6 KOs) from Watsonville, CA.
Godoy’s two losses were a four round split decision in his second fight to Anthony Wheaton in 2010 and a 7th round KO loss to Joshua Marks in 2012. At this point in his career Marks has KO’d eight of his opponents.
Fonseca has a similar background. He lost his first professional fight to the undefeated Felix Orozco and his second to the celebrated Levan “The Wolf” Ghvamichava (11-1, 8 KOs) the former Olympian from the Republic of Georgia.
Without a doubt, the matchmaker had hit a home run when he matched up these two young thoroughbreds – one a great boxer with a decent punch, Godoy, and the other, Fonseca, more of a brawler with the scary knockout punch.
On Friday evening, Godoy got off to a quick start and most assuredly took the first three rounds by outboxing Fonseca. By round four, Fonseca started to match Godoy’s output.
In rounds five through seven, Fonseca rallied and hurt Godoy with some heavy shots to the body and head. Fonseca’s confidence level hit it’s peak in that seventh round after he had Godoy in trouble against the ropes and looked to finish him. Instead of trying to finish him off, the cocky youngster raised his arms on high to celebrate his dominance. Thoughts of the pending knockout in the final round were evident.
The well conditioned Godoy showed his toughness and made a heroic comeback in the final round. He out-boxed Fonseca who by this time showed signs of tiring. His punches still had a lot of power but they were now wild and off the mark.
According to the judges, two had Godoy winning and the third judge saw the fight as a Draw. As a result, Godoy registered his 13th victory by split decision.
In this photo we see Victor “Sina” Fonseca with his support group (l to r) co-manager Gabriel Quinones, Fonseca, the President of the Tijuana Boxing Commission Juan Carlos Pelayo, Sina’s father-in-law/trainer/former boxing great Miguel “Maikito” Martinez, and co-manager/trainer Luis Lorenzo.
These photos of Oscar Godoy show his varied interests, one, as a real life cowboy and two, as a professional prizefighter of the upper echelon.
(left) At the conclusion of his bout with Oscar Godoy, Victor Fonseca sits and ponders what went wrong. (right) Godoy and Fonseca face off on Thursday at their weigh-ins.
Also on the docket they had Blanca Raymundo (1-10) of San Bernardino, CA who ended up losing to Seniesa Estrada who now goes to 3-0. This was Estrada’s second victory over Raymundo. The bout ended with an early stoppage. The only person Raymundo has ever beaten was the 38 year-old Katarina De la Cruz (2-8-1) from Los Angeles on October 6, 2012.
The other female bout had Candice Williams in her pro debut battling Celene Roman of Chino, CA (3-1-1) to a draw. This is the same Roman who began her career as a super featherweight, then dropped down to featherweight and then moved back up to lightweight. In her last fight, on December 21, 2013, the 25-year-old defeated Crystal “La Morenasa” Morales, the IFBA female lightweight world title holder in a non-title bout at the Westin Bonaventure Hotel in downtown Los Angeles.
The remaining bout, featured 25 year-old, 6’3”, heavyweight Javier “Monster” Torres (6-0-1 with 3 KOs), from Long Beach, CA and signed by the Thompson Boxing Group, battling 25 year-old Rodney Hernandez of Modesto, CA (5-1-0, 1 KO) to a draw.
On the Marconi website, they state: “The Marconi Automotive Museum and Foundation for Kids strives to reach its goal of helping to raise a million dollars a year for at risk youth in Orange County. A large percentage of the net proceeds generated from their special events and tours are donated to local children’s charities.”
It would be interesting to note how much money was raised for this most noble cause.
