By Larry Tornambe, at ringside
Agnaldo Nunes and Fernando Trejo fought each other for the vacant NABF and NABA Super Featherweight belts in Las Vegas on Friday night. Winning either of these titles guarantees a top ten ranking and hopefully a world title challenge.
The bout started evenly with Trejo as the aggressor but any and all exchanges were finished with a Nunes punch. Nunes continued to control the action through round 2 of the Silverhawk Boxing and Guilt Boxing promotion.
The southpaw Nunes worked his right jab with a rhythm; touch – touch – turn it over between the guard. It worked well for Nunes and against Trejo, who never was able to break the rhythm or get off the first punch. By the 6th round Trejo was able to work his way inside and Nunes greeted the visit with left uppercuts. Trejo (125½ lbs) felt the sting of Nunes and decided it was time to turn up the heat in the 8th round. Behind an energized crowd chant Trejo rushed inside and landed several combinations. He continued the aggression early in the 9th but Nunes (129½ lbs) earned the round by using the ring and throwing off Trejo’s momentum.
As frustration began to show on the Trejo’s stoic countenance, he lead with his head and if he could grab Nunes he’d hit and hold. Between rounds 9 and 10 Trejo’s corner attended to a minor cut on his hairline. Trejo (27-11-4) continued to lead with his head, causing a butt to Nunes’ left eye, but the Brazilian was not affected. He continued to control the action with his rhythm and lefts to the body. As the bout came to a close the feeling was that Agnaldo was the leader and utilized the better game plan.
All three judges and this ringside reporter had scores of 117-111 for Agnaldo Nunes (16-1-1; 7KOs). Nunes gets both regional belts and possibly a shot at the world title.
A 10-round co-feature had some wondering about the matchup; Angel Recio with 8-0 record against Marcos Licona with a 23-7-1 count. Only a combined 10 knockouts between the two have been scored, so we expected a full 10-rounder. Recio (125½ lbs) used all of the ring in the opening heat, Licona (128 lbs) cut the ring off but wasn’t offensively active. Recio sat down on his punches in the 2nd round and scored with lead rights before Licona answered back. They fell into a fantastic blood pressure-raising exchange in the round before the baby-faced Recio finished with a left hook and got out. Recio mixed up the pace again by the 4th round by showing slick head movement instead of footspeed. Licona began to shoot punches to the body in the 5th and Recio found a home for wide left hooks. Licona finished the round with a fine left hook to Recio’s jaw.
Marcos put three head swiveling punches on the young Dominican in the 6th and it looked like he was about to take control. Recio suffered a small cut near his left eye and started the 9th round by offering a glove touch, taking it away and turning it into a missed punch. This sparked the ire of Licona but his offense faded quickly. The 9th stanza was street fighting, Licona was cut by an accidental butt and Recio let go a couple punches below the belt. Recio returned to punching and getting outside and using the ring again while Licona finished a spirited flurry at the end of the 10th to steal the round.
A split decision turned out scores of 96-94 for each and a 98-92 deciding call for Recio, who remains undefeated. This reporter and the crowd saw Licona as the winner.
Welterweight Alexis Camacho remained undefeated in 10 bouts and a left hook to Jeray Cunningham’s body in the 2nd put him down. Cunningham had no place to hide from Camacho’s ensuing attack and Joe Cortez rescued Cunningham at 1:44 of the 2nd.
A Cruiserweight 4-rounder between solid Brandon Harris and chin-in-the-air Bryan Dailey seemed likely to end early. Dailey punched, but Harris countered with a left hook for a 2nd knockdown and KO at 2:42 in the 1st.
Juan Carlos Santiago and Baldan Trevizo fought a draw in August and agreed to go at it again over 6. The featherweights had no problem finding each other and the bout finished in a majority draw. Let’s see a third try!!
Cruiserweights Dimitrique Edwards and Nelson Zepeda had identical 9-2-1 records coming into their 6 rounder. Zepeda took Edwards best offerings in the early going and seemed like he was gaining momentum and taking the fight out of Edwards. Dimitrique chose his punches carefully and knocked out Zepeda with a left hook to the body at 1:34 of the 5th.
I must give many thanks to Silverhawk Boxing jack-of-all-trades, Al Mermini for his assistance.