The allure of boxing, Sustaita’s KO victory over Camacho in the final bout of the evening

After his thrilling victory everyone and their brother wanted to have their photo taken with Marco Antonio “El Lobito” Sustaita including the show’s Master of Ceremonies, the flamboyant ring announcer Juan Jaime (r).

On Saturday evening, February 20, Billar El Perro Salado (The Salty Dog Boxing Arena & Billards establishment) in Tijuana, B. C., Mexico hosted a boxing marathon that kept boxing fans out way past their bed time. The show began with a full slate of Amateur bouts which preceded the 11 bout Pro Show.

(top photo) Juan Pablo Montes de Oca of Tijuana in his professional debut has his arm raised in victory by referee Fernando Renteria after defeating Rogelio Arenas.

In Bout #1 it was Juan Pablo Montes de Oca of Tijuana in his pro debut chasing after Rogelio Arenas (1-7) for four rounds. The more aggressive, straight punching Montes prevailed against the no-look, wild swinging Arenas.

After spending considerable time in fact checking, we are still unable to determine whether this man (r) had the proper clearance to compete on Saturday evening’s boxing card in Tijuana. Prior to his bout with Justin Mayweather Jones, we spoke with this gentleman who said he was Albert Lee Tisdale III and 50 years of age.

Asked to assist in the corner of Justin Mayweather Jones was local boxing manager/trainer Gabriel Quinones (r) shown here with Jones just prior to his fight.

At the end of their shortened bout, boxers Albert Lee Tisdale III and Justin Mayweather Jones embrace.

Bout #2 was a late add on which featured Justin Mayweather Jones (1-0), the paternal half-brother of Floyd Mayweather Jr., taking on a man who claimed to be 50 year-old Albert Lee Tisdale III. After much fact checking we still haven’t established that Mr. Tisdale is a registered pro boxer. While it appeared headhunting was off limits for Mayweather, he did have free reign to punish Tisdale in the stomach. To be perfectly clear, it’s questionable whether Tisdale’s three patty-cake arm punches ever touched Mayweather. Tisdale’s careful role play and taking a knee three times, reminded this reporter of a parent having a very careful and well managed pillow fight with a two year-old.

Early in round one, Alan “Muñeco” Zavala began to have his way with the slender Luis Amador and within a short time Amador was lying on his back. Photos: Jim Wyatt

After knocking out Luis Amador, it was referee Fernando Renteria (r) raising the arm of the victorious Alan “Muñeco” Zavala.

Bout #3 featured an almost immediate knockout of the rather slender Luis Amador (0-1) of Tijuana who is listed as a lightweight. Amador was making his professional debut against super welterweight Alan “Muñeco” Zavala also of Tijuana. With his KO win over Amador coming at the 1:17 mark of round one, Zavala improved his record to 7-2 with 5 KOs.

Prior to their bout on Saturday, Rogelio De la Torre (l) of Houston, Texas and Juan Manuel Rodriguez (r) posed for a pre-fight photo. All photos: Jim Wyatt

This was another one-sided bout as the banger Rogelio De la Torre (red trunks) of Houston, Texas virtually had his way with Juan Manuel Rodriguez (black trunks).

At the conclusion of their bout, super welterweight Rogelio De la Torre (16-4-0, 7 KOs) had his arm raised in victory by referee Fernando Renteria.

Bout #4 – After losing to Jermall Charlo on November 12, 2013, the 27 year-old super welterweight Rogelio De la Torre (16-4-0, 7 KOs) from Houston, Texas has reverted to padding his record by facing less than stellar opponents. His last six opponents have a combined record of 3-32-1. On Saturday night his opponent was 36 year-old Juan Manuel Rodriguez 0-7 in his previous seven bouts and now 0-8 in his last eight after failing to go the distance for the eighth straight time.

Prior to their bout, we see Devin “The Dream” Haney from Las Vegas, NV (l) and his opponent Jorge “Metralletas” Sillas (r) of Tijuana being introduced to the crowd.

In this match Mr. Haney was in charge from the opening bell. Photos: Jim Wyatt

(photo bottom) Devin Haney (center) has his arm raised in victory by veteran referee Juan Manuel Morales Lee.

In Bout #5, it was 17 year-old featherweight Devin Haney, aka New Money (2-0) from Las Vegas, Nevada by way of Oakland, Calif., returning to El Perro Salado to face a veteran lightweight by the name of Jorge “Metralletas” Sillas (5-22). On the fast track, Haney picked up two quick victories in December over opponents that had a combined record of 8-22. His first fight lasted :33 seconds and the second 1:36. Unlike his first two bouts, Saturday’s contest was a bit of a challenge. Sillas, who got pummeled from every angle and kept eating these stiff jabs, went the entire bout trying to land that one big overhand right. In the end, Haney won by an unanimous decision.

(top) Prior to the start of their bout, Cristian Olivas of Tijuana and his opponent Alvarez Vazquez along with their support group faced the cameras for photos.

At the conclusion of their bout, the victorious Cristian Olivas (l) has his arm raised in victory by veteran referee Juan Manuel Morales Lee. Photos: Jim Wyatt

Bout #6 featured Cristian “Ruso” Olivas (5-0) of Tijuana who virtually destroyed the more stationary, 21 year-old Alvarez Vazquez with these hard shots to the midsection. Twice Vazquez, who was making his Pro debut, had Olivas pinned in the corner and managed to land a few power shots, but that was the some total of his offense against the more polished super middleweight.

(top) Bout #7 didn’t last long as Luis Velazquez (l) had his way with Jose Saucedo.

Luis Velazquez (l) has his arm raised in victory after defeating Jose Saucedo.

Bout #7 featuring Tijuana’s Luis Velazquez’s early stoppage of 21 year-old Jose Saucedo (2-0) from Tijuana and Bout #8 (below) featuring super flyweight Jose M. Cardenas’ early stoppage of Angel Cruz (2-2) were almost carbon copies of each other. The victors wasted little time and went all out in attack mode to overwhelm their opponent. With his win, Cardenas improved to (6-0).

Super flyweight Jose M. Cardenas (l) has his arm raised after defeating Angel Cruz.

What kind of a show is it, if you don’t have the beautiful Top 10 models handling the duties of ring card girls?

Bout #9 featured flyweight Emmanuel Africano (5-4) defeating super flyweight Luis Escobar who now drops to (0-4). It was Escobar’s third straight first round loss and his fourth straight TKO loss. All photos: Jim Wyatt

Bout #10 featured two heavyweights from Tijuana, Jesus “Perro” Paez (1-1) going up against Jonathan Rodriguez who was making his professional debut. While Paez demonstrated he can box and has heavy hands, his opponent offered little to no defense, lacked footwork and ended up taking a seat early.

Jesus “Perro” Paez (top, white trunks) poses for a pre-fight photo before manhandling the rookie Jonathan Rodriguez (r) who was making his professional debut. Below, we see Rodriguez reeling from the barrage of punches he received from Paez.

While many criticized this lineup of annihilations, miss-matches, you have to remember that building up your record to make the big bucks on TV is crucial. Julio Cesar Chavez, one of the most revered Champions of all time, began his career by fighting 18 stiffs who ended their career with a combined record of 29 Wins, 102 Losses and one Draw. Combined they had been knocked out 71 times. His son, Julio Cesar Chavez, Jr. mirrored his father’s exploits with a record of 18-0 in his first 18 bouts against opponents who ended their careers with a combined record of 106 Wins, 236 Losses and 4 Draws. If you check their losses and add up the knockouts, you come up with a total of 151 knockouts.

Saul “Canelo” Alvarez followed the same game plan and didn’t fight anyone with a winning record until his eleventh bout. Even Floyd Mayweather Jr. is guilty. In his first 10 fights, the Olympic Gold Medalist fought Tony Duran (13-26-2 who was KO’d 19 times), Jesus Chavez (3-22-1). He was also knocked out 19 times. Edgar Ayala (0-4, a three time KO victim), Reggie Sanders (12-47-4) and Roberto Apodaca (1-5, a four time KO victim).      

In comparison to the first 10, more lopsided bouts, the final match of the evening turned out to be a thriller, the proverbial “Bout of the Night.” Bout #11 featured super flyweights Esteban Camacho of Tijuana going up against 19 year-old Marco Antonio “El Lobito” Sustaita (0-1) of Oceanside, Calif., who in his debut on August 29, 2015, lost to the hometown favorite Francisco Chavez in a controversial bout in Phoenix, Arizona. With the bitterness from that first loss still fresh in his mind, he trained extremely hard for Saturday’s contest.

From the opening bell, both boxers went at each other as if it were the closing seconds of a title fight. In other words they threw and landed some big shots to the head and the crowd responded by cheering wildly. To close the show, Sustaita caught Camacho with two solid left hooks that surprised Camacho who in retreat fell to the canvas. After the obligatory eight count, Sustaita realizing he had Camacho hurt, advanced with complete abandonment. To his credit the back-peddling Camacho withstood another big punch, this one a solid overhand right to the head. It still wasn’t enough. That’s when Sustaita went all out to deliver a second overhand right. This one landed flush on Camacho’s chin and down he went. With a great many of the patrons coming from Oceanside to support their compadre, the partisan crowd erupted while Camacho layed there, flat on his back.

So, after a night of these monotonous, run-of-the-mill bouts, the crowd was finally treated to an electrifying finish and you saw the remaining patrons leave El Perro Saldo Arena with a smile on their face.

(top, left) Pre-fight super flyweights Esteban Camacho of Tijuana (red trunks) and Marco Antonio “El Lobito” Sustaita (silver with blue stripe) from Oceanside, Calif. posed for photos. (photo, bottom) We see Camacho lying on his back after Sustaita landed the perfect overhand right to Camacho’s chin. Photos: J. Wyatt