Alex “El Charrito” Luna Stops Daniel Attah in CA.

PICO RIVERA, CA.—-Alex “El Charrito” Luna was in familiar territory and took his time before taking over a fight and forcing Daniel Attah to quit in the corner on Saturday.

Luna (pictured with trainer Ben Lira), whose nickname means “the little cowboy,” throttled Attah (28-17-1) for six rounds filled with body shots before a supportive crowd at the Pico Rivera Sports Arena. The main event of the Gary Shaw Production ended with a fury burst of banda music.

“I wanted to do this for my friends, family and supporters,” said Luna (16-0, 12 Kos) , age 22, who lives in nearby Whittier and has participated in cowboy events in the same arena.

The WBC Youth lightweight champion entered the ring as a southpaw against the southpaw Attah. From the beginning Luna was the aggressor and Attah the counter-puncher. Body shots came one after another by Luna.

Attah has fought a number of great fighters and world champions. He lulls fighters to sleep by blocking and moving, then catches aggressive fighters with strong counters. He tried but was never successful against Luna.

“I’ve been working on my defense,” said Luna.

It showed.

Luna was able to rattle off thunderous body shots while not getting hit with the counters. In round five, a right cross by Luna shook Attah and forced him to hold for survival. It was the harbinger of bad things to come for the Nigerian born boxer.

In the sixth round Luna increased the tempo and was not eager to allow Attah to hold. Some blazing rights and lefts caught Attah, especially to the body. Soon the African fighter’s body language showed that he was not going to be able to absorb too much more punishment. At the end of round six the corner signaled the fight was over. Luna won by technical knockout at the end of round six.

Other bouts

Roy Tapia (8-0-1) of East L.A. won all six rounds against Tijuana’s Sergio Najera (5-12-2) in a junior featherweight bout. Tapia looked especially good in the final three rounds as he unloaded combinations.

South El Monte’s Mayra Manzo (1-0) won a lightweight clash between debut fighters in stopping Lancaster’s Edelma Jeffrey (0-1) with a flurry of blows at 1:00 of round one. Manzo used her strength and fast hands to connect and hurt Jeffrey. It was a good stoppage. Manzo is trained by legendary trainer Ben Lira, who also trains Luna.

South El Monte’s Arnold Barboza (3-0) shut out Las Vegas visitor Douglas Rosales (0-2) all four rounds to win by unanimous decision.

Bakersfield’s Jose Garcia (3-6, 2 Kos) knocked down Santa Ana’s Alejandro Ochoa (3-5-1) twice to win by unanimous decision after four rounds. The scores were 39-35 and 38-36 twice for Garcia.

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