Moving on up, Quintana gets her 9th victory, Flores his 15th

During Saturday’s co-main event at the Salon Mezzanine in Tijuana, we see Amaris Quintana (r) timing her punch with the delivery of her opponent’s left hook. It’s not what a coach likes to see but it is full blown entertainment for the savvy, erudite boxing fan who is enamored by Quintana’s amazing courage and boxing skills. Photos: Jim Wyatt

At the Borizteca Boxing Management Group’s latest offering, their second straight show at the Salon Mezzanine in Tijuana, they featured heavyweights 25 year-old, 231 pound Alexander “The Great” Flores (14-1-1, 12 KOs) going up against the 38 year-old, 239.3 pound Roman Borquez (3-5-1) of Ensenada, B. C., Mexico. As is the case in the heavyweight ranks, this one didn’t last very long.

Early on, Flores appeared to be ignoring his coach’s directive to jab and move. Instead he played right into the shorter man’s strength by allowing Borquez to get close for some in-fighting. That changed somewhat in round two, when Flores, who has power in both hands, got separation and landed the stunner that sent Borquez down and as they say “out cold”- unconscious.

With this being Flores’ 13th knockout in his 17 bouts, you have to be impressed. But, keeping things in perspective, that means he now has only 118 KOs more to match the 131 KOs of San Diego’s Archie Moore.

(bottom) Prior to the start of Bout #10, the evening’s Main Event, Alexander Flores (r) and Roman Borquez (l) meet in the center of the ring to listen to the final instructions from referee Fernando Renteria.

(bottom, right) Borquez makes that fatal mistake by lowering his guard and exposing the right side of his head to Flores who then clobbers him with a solid right.

From a neutral corner, a concerned Alexander Flores looks across at his opponent Roman Borquez who initially was lying face down on the canvas. With the power from Flores’ punch, Borquez almost fell through the ropes and on to the floor below.

(top) Alexander Flores has his arm raised in victory by referee Fernando Renteria. (below) Flores poses for photos, first with Borquez and then (r) with the five time World Featherweight Champion Manuel “Mantecas” Medina.

(photo, bottom) Flores poses for one last photo with the co-promoter Lou Messina (l) and his coach Michael Love (r). All photos: Jim Wyatt

The “Bout of the night” has to be Bout #8, the six round co-main event that went the distance between flyweights Amaris “Diamond Girl” Quintana of Chula Vista, Calif. and Selene Lopez of Los Mochis, Sinaloa, Mexico. With both weighing the same 50.8 kilograms (111 pounds) and both having equal power behind their punches, it all boiled down to which young lady had the biggest heart and who could take a punch without taking a step back. The war of attrition was won by Quintana who never failed to move forward and never failed to throw a minimum of one additional punch in each of their exchanges.

By round three, the intimidation factor had started to settled in. Whenever Lopez delivered a hard shot on Quintana, the Diamond Girl would smile as if to say, “Is that all you got?” Sitting at ringside, the well respected trainer Gustavo Pacheko Enriquez plus one of the three judges informed this reporter that Quintana had won every round. The other two judges scoring the bout also had Quintana ahead 59-55 giving just one round to Lopez. With her unanimous decision victory, Quintana improves to 9-2-2 with 1 KO, while Lopez drops to 3-4-3.

The young ladies, first Amaris Quintana of Chula Vista, Calif. (l) followed by Selene Lopez of Los Mochis, Sinaloa, Mexico (r) make their way to the ring.

(top) Quintana is seen hiding her punch, as she cranks up to deliver a devastating right cross to the left side of Lopez’s head. (below) Lopez retaliates with a hard left hook that certainly gets Quintana’s attention.

(top) With the judges’ decision still unknown, we see a nervous Amaris Quintana awaiting the announcement by the esteemed ring announcer Pablo Flores. (below) Quintana has her arm raised in victory by referee Fernando Renteria.

The fight card of 10 bouts showcased more than a few of the hot prospects we’ll soon be seeing on TV’s HBO World Championship Boxing, Showtime, CBS, NBC and the like. For example, in Bout #8 they had 35 year-old welterweight Juan Manuel Rodriguez (5-9) of Tijuana facing 29 year-old Juan “El Nino” Ruiz (14-0-0, 8 KOs). Even though Ruiz’s present residence is in Tijuana, his hometown is Santa Teresa del Tui, Miranda, Venezuela. It’s for sure Mr. Ruiz has some major backers because he’s not only fought in Venezuela and Mexico, he’s also fought in Panama, Nicaragua and twice in Germany.

In this one, you knew it was going to be over in a hurry. It’s doubtful if Juan Manuel Rodriquez even landed a glove on the elusive, more skilled, sharpshooter before the bout was stopped via TKO at the 1:46 mark of round one.

In Bout #8, it was Juan “El Nino” Ruiz winning by virtue of a first round TKO.

Bout #7 had the equally exciting, 173 pound Manuel “El Venado” Ceballos (5-1, 4 KOs) of Merida, Yucatan, Mexico going up against 174 pound Angel de Jesus Estrada (0-4) of Tijuana in a light heavyweight match. After Estrada’s dismal performance he had no time to sign autographs and left immediately. The end came at 37 seconds of round one, before “El Venado” had a chance to work up a sweat.

Confident as ever, Manuel “El Venado” Ceballos of Merida, Yucatan, Mexico had no problem dismantling his opponent. It took him all of 37 seconds.

Bout #6 featured another hot prospect, 22 year-old lightweight Alimkhan Jumakhonov (Aleem Khan) (2-1-1) from Reseda, Calif. who was taking on Manuel Sandoval (0-4) of Tijuana. This bout lasted until the 1:19 mark of round one. What happened? Sandoval must have decided to draw an imaginary circle in the center of the ring and then defend it at all cost. In close quarters, Sandoval took a beating and twice went to the canvas before referee Juan Morales Lee decided it was time to stop the carnage.

(top) In Bout #6, the combatants, lightweights Alimkhan Jumakhonov (Aleem Khan) of Reseda, Calif. (l) and Manuel Sandoval (r) of Tijuana wasted no time and went straight to the center of the ring to battle it out. Soon, Sandoval was on his back.

After several more heated exchanges, Sandoval was once again down on the canvas.

After a first round stoppage, Khan had his arm raised in victory by referee Juan Morales Lee. Soon after Khan was joined by a large entourage celebrating the victory. They even had a celebratory drink planned while being interviewed on the radio.

Bout #5 had the popular Armando Tovar (1-0, 1 KO) from the House of Boxing, Paradise Hills, San Diego, Calif. going up against Marvin Estrella of Tijuana who was making his pro-debut. This was a very good scrap as both boxers landed and defended well. Then, after two low blows by Tovar, referee Juan Morales Lee levied a point deduction on Tovar. With the possibility looming of losing the round, Tovar went at Estrella with even more intensity. After taking so many hard shots to the head and body, Estrella and his corner decided to call it a night. Instead of answering the bell for round three, Estrella sat there on his stool while the referee counted him out.

(top) Marvin Estrella, an exceptional Amateur boxer, was planning on making his Pro-debut a successful one, but he had little chance against Armando Tovar (2-0, 2 KOs). The more seasoned Tovar ripped through Estrella as if he were tissue paper.

Bout #4 featuring Jorge Escalante, a righty from San Diego (3-0, 2 KOs) versus the winless, southpaw Juan Carlos Moreno of Tijuana (0-10) turned out to be a difficult match to score with it’s continual change of momentum. Throughout, you had Moreno cranking up this big overhand left to sock Escalante. In retaliation, Escalante acted as if he were a toll taker on the Penna. turnpike – making change for each dollar. Instead of delivering in kind, Escalante would hand Moreno back four quarters, in other words four soft blows. The dilemma for the judges was figuring out how to weigh the number of punches thrown, the soft pitter-patter blows, mostly jabs, by Escalante and compare them to the much harder but infrequent power shots being landed by Moreno. With the judges, more than likely confused as were the patrons, they ended up scoring the bout a majority draw.

(bottom,) George Escalante (r) and Juan Carlos Moreno (l) had one of those matches where it was truly impossible to decide a winner. Back and forth went the momentum, back and forth between the lefty versus the righty to end in a majority draw.

Bout #3 had Juan Delgado (128.1 lbs.) of Tijuana going up against Smokin’ Joe Perez (126.2 lbs.) of The Arena, Point Loma, San Diego. This was another bout where there was a big difference in skill level. From the outset, Perez wailed away at Delgado with left hooks to the body and followed with the straight right to the head. Soon, there was no fight left in the battered Delgado and the bout was stopped after the third round.

In Bout #3, it was Smokin Joe Perez (white trunks) from The Arena Gym in San Diego having his way with Juan Delgado of Tijuana (yellow trunks). Photos: J. Wyatt

Bout #2 had 31 year-old Michael Haigood (1-3, 126.12 lbs.) of San Diego’s House of Boxing going up against Gonzalo Lopez (0-1, 128.1 lbs.) of Tijuana. After Haigood held his own in round one, he inexplicably had a difficult time mounting any attack for the remainder of the fight. Simply put, he was out-worked by Lopez.

(bottom) Bout #2, featured two super featherweights Michael Haigood (l) of San Diego and Gonzalo Lopez (r) of Tijuana and in the end Lopez came away with an unanimous decision victory. Photos: J. Wyatt

After the hotly contested first round, it appeared Gonzalo Lopez wanted it more.

In the opener, Bout #1, it was super welterweight Javier Lazare of Tijuana making his Pro debut against Aaron “Gemelo” Rueda (2-0, 2 KOs) of Merida, Yucatan, Mexico. Both gents tipped the scales at the same 152.2 pounds. 

If you enjoy watching two full force, power punchers in action then this bout was right up your alley. Both young men were throwing and landing scary punches. Even before round one ended, Rueda had developed this injury, a hematoma on the left forehead which quickly formed a ½ inch by 2 inch visible lump. How he could continue with that pain through three additional rounds is remarkable. In a close one, Rueda came away with the well deserved victory. All three judges were in agreement and scored the close bout 39-37 for Rueda.

(top, right) Bout #1, between super welterweight Javier Lazare of Tijuana (l) and Aaron “Gemelo” Rueda (r) of Merida, Yucatan, Mexico, was a war.

In the end, all three judges were in agreement and scored the bout 39-37 for Rueda.

Question: How long before our local Cable TV companies get involved in airing these local boxing shows? Every one knows how costly it is for network TV to pay the tidy sums they do for a NCAA basketball or football game or the NBA, NFL and Major League Baseball games. If we go by the TV ratings, they don’t even come close to what they would get from a boxing event. Being a great buy, with such a substantial fan base, especially within the confines of Southern California and Baja California, you would think the TV Networks and cable companies would get onboard with these local boxing promoters.