Anthony Olascuaga wins a 'war' against Yuberjen Martinez

Few fighters get to author even once the kind of night Anthony Olascuaga enjoyed Saturday in Carson, California. A native Angeleno, Olascuaga fought a back-and-forth action fight with Colombia’s unexpectedly competitive Yuberjen Martinez and scored a 12th-round knockdown to edge out a unanimous decision and make the sixth consecutive successful defense of his flyweight title.

Olascuaga, 13-1 (9 KOs), served as one half of the chief support a Diego Pacheco-Darius Fulghum main event at Dignity Health Sports Park – also known as The War Grounds – but the night arguably belongs to him.

As the seconds ticked down on a fight featuring several major swings, Olascuaga uncorked a short, straight right hand on the chin of Martinez, 7-1 (7 KOs), dropping him with only seconds remaining. 

The dramatic knockdown took on more heft when the scores were announced – 115-112, 114-113 for Olascuaga – and a little math revealed that it may very well have determined the outcome.

“I said, ‘What a war,’” Olascuaga admitted when asked what he told Martinez as they embraced immediately after the final bell. “He’s gonna be champion one day. He gave me one of my toughest fights.

“I thought I was gonna come here and it be easy. I had that knockout power, but he had his skills. You know, he’s an Olympian.”

Martinez, 35, was indeed a two-time Olympian for Colombia, but he appeared outgunned from the start. Saturday was Martinez’s first fight in the U.S. and only his second fight outside Colombia, and Olascuaga’s power and pro pedigree seemed to overwhelm the challenger in the first two rounds.

Olascuaga connected easily from the start, putting Martinez on the back foot and closing the first round with a gorgeous three-punch combination. In the second, he appeared to draw in Martinez in order to spring a counterattack that started with a left hand upstairs and a follow-up right that rocked Martinez, sending him backwards. He nearly crumpled Martinez in the final seconds of the frame, but the challenger was able to avoid calamity.

In fact, it marked the beginning of a turnaround. Martinez began working angles, nailing his timing and recruiting his amateur reflexes to be first more often. By the fifth round, he was leading the action, attacking from angles, slipping away from nearly everything coming back and frustrating Olascuaga.

“I underestimated him,” Olascuaga admitted. “He was a great warrior, and it was a fun fight.”

In the sixth, Martinez fought confidently at midrange and, more than once, snapped Olascuaga’s head back with an uppercut that had to have grabbed official scorers’ attention. Olascuaga, who had been smiling in the early rounds, was now in danger of losing his belt.

But a heavy body shot from Olascuaga in the seventh slowed Martinez’s activity, which seemed to be the reminder the titleholder needed. Olascuaga turned his full attention to Martinez’s body in the eighth, and he slipped an uppercut under the challenger’s elbow that drew a wince and may have even sent Martinez to the canvas. Referee Thomas Taylor ruled it a slip rather than a knockdown, but it was another sign that Olascuaga was wresting control of the fight back from Martinez.

Olascuaga had grabbed the wheel again by the final rounds, but Martinez was hardly going away. The action was crisp and roughly equal, and it still seemed either man’s fight – until Olascuaga’s hammering right hand sealed the deal.

Charlie Sheehy shuts out Jose Matias Romero

An injury denied local fans the all-L.A. lightweight battle that had been scheduled between Charlie Sheehy and Gabe Flores Jnr, but they were instead treated to a withering punching display from Sheehy against credible late replacement Jose Matias Romero.

Sheehy, 14-0 (8 KOs), a 28-year-old who is originally from San Francisco, dominated from pillar to post, winning a shutout unanimous decision by scores of 100-90 on all three officials’ scorecards.

Sheehy got to work from the opening bell, landing everything from a sharp jab to hard lead rights and heavy body work with both hands. He changed levels fluidly, forcing Romero to pick his poison, and in the second round he simply knocked his Argentine opponent all over the ring.

The 30-year-old Romero, 31-5-1 (11 KOs), offered a durable, experienced pro with a strong record and a number of fights under his belt against proven world-class performers. Previously, Romero had gone the distance with Isaac Cruz, Michel Rivera and Rene Tellez Giron (a win for Romero), among others.

He gave Sheehy rounds and occasional pushback, but Romero had very little else. Referee Gerard White kept a close eye on Romero over the second half of the fight, and the ring doctor checked on him once between rounds. But even after Sheehy planted an uppercut on Romero’s chin in the ninth that wobbled him, Romero rode out the storm and showed just enough to make it to the final bell.