Once again, Cristian Favela makes a good boxer look bad
After Cristian Favela’s opponents tire from throwing so many punches, back he comes to do some major payback. Photo courtesy of Ray Flores
Surprise, surprise, Mauricio Herrera of Lake Elsinore, CA was awarded an unanimous decision victory over Cristian Favela of Los Angeles in what most boxing insiders would call an eight round snoozer. Who would have thunk it? Once again, the 31 year-old sly fox, Favela, made a hot prospect look mediocre as he has done so often.
You got to wonder how Friday’s performance will affect Herrera’s psychic. In his last outing, he looked great when facing the 27 year-old undefeated Russian, Ruslan Prodnikov to win the vacant IBF North American light welterweight title. Favela made him look run-of-the-mill.
Mauricio Herrera (left) of Lake Elsinore, CA throws a left uppercut in an attempt to penetrate the turtle-like defenses of veteran prizefighter Cristian Favela. Photo courtesy of Ray Flores
Maybe it was for the best. When you can’t hurt such a great defensive boxer it’s best that you go right along with the script. With his lackluster performance, Herrera now improves to 17-1-0 while Favela who lost for the sixteenth time over a 26 month period goes to 19-32-7.
The ideal matchup between the taller boxer Abraham Lopez (left) facing the shorter, inside puncher, Aaron Garcia (right), went the distance with the close decision being awarded to Lopez. Photo credit: Ray Flores
In the Co-main event, an eight round featherweight bout, undefeated Abraham Lopez of La Puente, CA (14-0-0, 10 KOs) managed to defeat Vista, CA’s Aaron Garcia who now drops to (10-2-2, 2 KOs). The fight was pretty even throughout and then in the closing stages Lopez appeared to do just enough to win over the judges and receive the favorable scores of 77-75, 76-76, and 78-74 in this ever so-close match.
Alberto Herrera (left) and Aaron Martinez (right) went non-stop. Photo: Ray Flores
The biggest crowd pleaser turned out to be the all out battle between Alberto Herrera going full bore against the tough Aaron Martinez. In the final two rounds, Herrera seemed to tire, while Martinez appeared to be still fresh, fresh enough to dominate their final exchanges. With the split decision victory of 77-75, 75-77 and 77-74, Martinez improves to (14-1-1, 3 KOs) while Herrera drops to (7-3-1, 5 KOs).
Hometown favorite, Jonathon “Lil’ Thund’r” Arellano improves to (8-0-0 with 1 KO) after defeating Shawn Nichol of Lakewood, Colorado who now drops to (5-4-0, with 5 KOs). Photo courtesy of Ray Flores
In earlier action, the hometown favorite, Jonathon “Lil’ Thund’r” Arellano had his hands full dealing with the lefty Shawn Nichol of Lakewood, Colorado. Nichols did very well as long as he pressed the action but as soon as he let up, Arellano was all over his case. In the end, Arellano prevailed by unanimous decision with scores of 58-56 on all three score cards to improve to (8-0-0,1 KO). Nichol now drops to (5-4-0, 5 KOs).
Jhon Ortega (right) of Londonderry, New Hampshire was awarded a first round knockout after Hector Garza of Harlingen, Texas failed to regain his feet by the count of 10. Photo courtesy of Ray Flores
In the opening bout, between welterweights Jhon Ortega of Londonderry, New Hampshire and Hector Garza of Harlingen, Texas, Ortega took care of business early by dropping Garza with a powerful one-two combination. Garza didn’t appear to be hurt but wavered too long in the process of getting back to his feet which prompted the referee to count him out despite a mild protest. Time of the stoppage was 2:35 of the first round. With the victory, Ortega improves to (4-0-1, 4 KOs) while Garza drops to (3-2-0, 2 KOs).
