by Ryan Burton, Luis Sandoval & Ernest Gabion at ringside
At the Citizens Business Bank Arena in Ontario, California, Tomasz Adamek (41-1, 27KOs) won a very hard-fought twelve round majority decision over Chris Arreola (28-2, 25KOs). The scores were 114-114 a draw, 115-113 and 117-111.
The first round saw Adamek sticking and moving with a good jab and came back with combinations behind the jabs. In the second, Arreola had his moments but nothing more than one punch at a time and he was being caught with counters and combinations coming in. Adamek with a very strong showing in the third. He was catching Arreola flush with some very telling punches. Arreola landed a few good shots near the end. Arreola came on strong in the fourth. He seemed to wobble Adamek in the first minute and worked him over until Adamek began to come back with some combinations in the third minute.
In the fifth, Arreola's face was swelling but once again he stunned Adamek and had him in trouble. Arreola jumped on him trying to finish. Adamek was able to hang on and got himself out of trouble. Another strong round for Arreola in the sixth. Adamek had his momments but not enough. Arreola seemed to hurt Adamek in certain spots. In round seven, Arreola continued his rally with the bigger and much harder punches to push Adamek all over the ring.
In the eight, Adamek started very well with his boxing ability. He was landing hard combinations and getting away before Arreola was able to get off with counters. The ninth saw Adamek continue to box, hustle with his punches and land combinations before Arreola could come back. Arreola was getting very frustrated because he couldn't catch Adamek. The tenth saw Arreola wobble Adamek. He went after Adamek but left himself wide open and took some hard counters for his trouble. Arreola seemed to hurt his right hand on Adamek's head. Adamek saw that and went after Arreola, taking the fight to him and landing some hard punches.
They started trading some very hard shots at the start of the eleventh round. It was a close range war with both fighters trading hard shots. During a rush, Arreola once again hurt his hand. Adamek went after him with combinations. Arreola tried to fire but he was unable to land many punches with the hurt hand. Adamek finished stronger. The fight appeared to be on the table as the fighters touched gloves for the twelfth and final round. Arreola's face was a complete swollen mess, with cuts, at this point. Adamek was landing some good combinations when Arreola would follow him in. Adamek was landing some good punches and moving away before Arreola could get off. Adamek continued to land combos as Arreola tried to follow him around. The mixed crowd of Mexican and Polish boxing fans stood up to give both fighters a standing ovation.
In the junior middleweight co-feature, Alfredo Angulo (18-1, 15KOs) knocked out Joel Julio (35-4, 31KOs) in the eleventh round.
After six rounds of action, the fight was close with Julio using a lot of movement and a busy workrate to win rounds. Angulo had his moments when they traded in close, but Julio was able to take the punches. Julio was the busier of the two fighters and used his fast hands to fire hard shots and then get away before Angulo could counter. Around the eight round, Julio slowed down and Angulo began to slowly take over. Julio's left eye was cut from a shot in the ninth round. In the eleventh, Angulo landed a bomb that dropped Julio down very hard. Julio beat the count but he was in no shape to continue and the ref stopped the fight.
In opening bout of the evening, lightweight prospect John Molina Jr. improved to 19-1 by scoring a TKO at the 2:55 mark of the second round against the over matched Jose Izquierdo. Molina dominated the fight and finished off Izquierdo with a right to the head.
Undefeated upcoming prospect Chris Avalos (16-0, 13KOs) made short work of Columbian John Molina (27-13-3, 18KOs) by stopping him in just 2 rounds. Both fighters started slow but by the 2nd round, both were trading in the center of the ring with Avalos getting the better of it. It proved to be too much for Molina as he quit in his stool and did not answer the bell for the 3rd round.
In a heavyweight four round attraction, Natu Visinia (4-0-, 3 KOs) took on Lancaster native Geovanni Sarran who was making his pro debut. Someone must’ve forgot to tell Sarran that you need to train in order to be a professional fighter because he came in sporting one of the worst physiques I’ve ever seen. After an uneventful 3 rounds, both would clash heads at the beginning of the 4th which cut Sarran and the referee deemed him unable to continue. They went to the scorecards and Natu received a unanimous decision victory.
Out of shape Heavyweights seemed to be the theme of the night as Boston native Nate James took on the game Mexican Alvaro Morales(4-7-5) in another 4 round Heavyweight attraction. Morales may not look athletic but he was light on his feet and gave good head movement against James. Both had their moments as they decided to let their hands go in the last and final round. Judges scored it a split decision with the nod going to Nate James as he improved to 3-0, 1KO.
In the last untelevised fight of the night, hot prospect Rico Ramos was in action against savvy veteran Reynaldo Lopez in an 8 round Junior Featherweight attraction. Despite getting knocked down in the 2nd round by a sweeping left hook from Ramos, Lopez did a good job of matching Ramos’ speed and giving Ramos a more difficult fight than he would’ve expected. Lopez used movement to evade Ramos’s attack but in the 5th round on, Ramos began timing Lopez and landing some hard counter shots. Near the end of the 7th round, Ramos would once again put Lopez on the canvas with a left hook to punctuate the round and the fight. Rico Ramos would improve to 16-0, 9KOs with a unanimous decision victory with scores of 80-70, 79-71, and 78-72.
