By Francisco Salazar
Two nights prior to Saturday’s big fight card between Marcos Maidana and Josesito Lopez in suburban Los Angeles, professional boxing will take place down the 405 Freeway in Orange County.
Heavyweight Jonathan Hamm will take on Andrae Carthron in a scheduled six round bout at the Hangar at the OC Fair and Events Center in Costa Mesa, CA.
The bout will headline a seven-bout “Fight Club OC” card, presented by Roy Englebrecht Promotions.
Hamm (6-1, 5 KOs), who is originally from Atlanta and currently resides in the Los Angeles area, has scored back-to-back third round knockouts since his only defeat on February 1st.
Carthron (6-9-2, 1 KO), from Los Angeles, CA, is coming off a stoppage to defeat Glendy Hernandez after the fourth round on September 15th.
Junior lightweights Jose Correa and Karihi Tehei will square off in a scheduled six round bout.
Correa (7-3, 4 KOs), from nearby Santa Ana, will attempt to bounce back from being stopped in his last fight on September 8th against Cesar Valenzuela.
Tehei (3-1, 2 KOs) suffered his first defeat in his last bout at the hands of Luis Bello on May 16th. Tehei hails from the French Polynesian islands.
Opening up the card will be an intriguing six round cruiserweight match-up between Hamilton Ventura and Grover Young (7-9-1, 4 KOs). The unbeaten Ventura (8-0-1, 8 KOs) hails from Sao Paolo, Brazil and fought to a six round split decision draw against Mitch Williams two weeks ago.
In what could be the fight of the night, lightweights Rhonda Luna and Crystal Morales will fight in a scheduled six round bout. Luna (16-3-2, 2 KOs) will be fighting for the first time in over two years, while Morales (7-8-1, 1 KO) is coming off a four round decision victory over Tammie Johnson on February 23rd.
In other bouts:
- Heavyweight Charles Martin (6-0, 6 KOs) will fight Joshua Clark (2-1, 1 KO) in a scheduled four round bout.
- Junior welterweight Dwain Victorian will be making his professional debut against Cory Muldrew (0-2) in a scheduled four round bout.
- Unbeaten cruiserweights Malanga D’Hue (1-0) and Keith Busch (1-0, 1 KO) will square off in a scheduled four round bout.
Three mixed martial arts round out the card.
“It (June 6th) is the biggest show I have ever done in the three years of Fight Club OC shows in The Hangar or the 26 years at the Irvine Marriott,” said longtime promoter Roy Englebrecht. “This truly will be a historic show this coming Thursday. It will be the first time in combative sports you have both a female boxing bout and a female MMA bout on the same show.”
“It’s as strong a show as you will find anywhere in the country.”
Doors open at 6:30PM, with first bell scheduled for 7:30PM. $50 tickets are still available and could be purchased by calling (949) 760-3131 or at www.fightcluboc.com
The Hangar at the OC Fair and Event Center is located at 88 Fair Drive, right off the 55 Freeway in Costa Mesa.
Francisco A. Salazar has covered boxing in Southern California and abroad since 2000. He also covers boxing for the Ventura County (CA) Star newspaper. He could be reached by email at santio89@yahoo.com or on twitter at Salazar_soccer
