Adam Carrera, Yohnny Perez and Dominic Salcido Grab Wins in California

ONTARIO, CALIFORNIA-Cathedral City’s Adam “El Torito” Carrera fought a phone booth war with Santa Clarita’s rugged Juan “The Phoenix” Ruiz and emerged with the win in a 10-round featherweight contest at the Ontario Doubletree Hotel on Friday.

“I never underestimated his conditioning,” said Carrera (19-2, 8 KOs).

Though much taller, Carrera battled inside against the bull-like rushes of Ruiz (22-4, 6 KOs) and was able to sustain a high-energy attack that slowly overwhelmed the shorter boxer in front of a sold out crowd of 1,200.

In the fifth round Carrera turned around the fight with combinations and use of angles against Ruiz whose face began to swell especially around the left eye.

A walnut-size bump emerged around Ruiz’s left eye as Carrera continued the attack and seemed much fresher. The ringside physicians examined the eye and allowed the fight to continue until the end.

“I’m definitely looking for a title fight now,” Carrera said.

A co-main event ended with Colombia’s Yohnny Perez (11-0, 8 KOs) beating Mexico’s Samuel Lopez (17-5-1, 6 KOs) to the punch with a short right hand and down he went for the count at 2:00 of the first round. Perez captured the WBC Continental America’s bantamweight title with the win.

Perez, 28, has little time to work his way into title contention so despite only 11 fights his promoters are anxious to see what the Colombian sharpshooter can do with contenders.

It was the first time the crowd loudly supported Perez a Colombian who usually receives boos in the partisan Mexican crowd. Perhaps it was the cheering that provided the impetus for the first round knockout by Perez.

In a junior lightweight bout, Rialto’s Dominic Salcido stepped in against former junior bantamweight title challenger Julio Gamboa (26-11-2) of Nicaragua and dropped him with a left hook in the opening seconds of the fight. But the veteran of four world title fights was able to evade any more punishing blows in losing a clear unanimous decision 80-71.

“I knew he was going to be tough his record speaks for itself,” said Salcido (12-0, 6 KOs). “I didn’t know he was a left-hander.”

It was apparent that Salcido’s hand speed and power was a little too much for Gamboa who tried to lure the taller Californian into wild exchanges. But the younger fighter remained at a distance and had an easy time firing from the outside.

Carlos Molina made his professional debut with a convincing performance against Mario Juarez (2-3-1) of Paramount. The Commerce lightweight showed pinpoint punching and flashes of power that Juarez was able to withstand. The judges scored it 40-36 twice and 39-37 for Molina. Manager Frank Espinoza, who has Israel Vazquez and Martin Castillo in his stable, expects good things from Molina who was an elite amateur fighter coming out of the same gym as Francisco “Panchito” Bojado.

Manny Roman captured a unanimous decision over Colorado’s Ernie Marquez in a six-round junior bantamweight clash. Both boxers worked on the inside with all three judges giving the decision to Huntington Park’s Roman 60-54 and 59-55 twice.

Canada’s Joel Mills (3-1) who fights out of Hollywood scored a second round technical knockout over Washington’s Frank Bybee (4-10) at 1:49. Referee Ray Corona stopped the bout.