Oxnard’s Crystal Morales Loses to Lissette Medal

CALABASAS, Calif. – A pro-Oxnard crowd saw two of its three fighters emerged victorious while popular Crystal Morales was tagged with a loss of her wardrobe and minus a victory on Tuesday.

Morales, who fights out of La Colonia Boxing Club in Oxnard, faced Maywood’s Lissette Medal at the Sagebrush Cantina in Calabasas. The town is also the location of the Retired Motion Picture Actors Home.

Last year Medal captured a win five minutes from her hometown; this time the fight took place in within 20 minutes of Morales' home and many felt the fight would be different on this occasion.

And it was.

Morales entered the first ring cautious and calculating. Medal, who is slightly shorter, seemed perplexed by her opponent’s inactivity.

“Last time she jumped all over me,” said Medal (2-0), who won the first fight held a year ago in City of Commerce, a town located across the freeway from East Los Angeles. “But she wouldn’t throw the first punch this time.”

Near the end of the first round, Morales landed several left hook counters to the head. But overall, few punches were exchanged – less than the first encounter that ended with both fighters physically spent.

“I wanted her to throw the first punch this time,” said Morales (4-4-1), who is trained by former junior lightweight world titleholder Robert Garcia. “That was my plan for this fight. I felt it was working.”

The plan worked but her breast protector kept slipping out of place. The short t-shirt she was wearing could not keep the protector secured and it slipped out in the second and fourth rounds. In both instances Morales was doing well but stopped to slip her protector back into place while Medal fired blows on her.

“I didn’t want to give the people a free show,” said Morales, who was embarrassed about her wardrobe malfunction. “I also got poked in the eye.”

The final three rounds of the four-round bout saw both women engage sporadically, with Morales using her longer reach in snapping accurate left jabs and left hook counters. Medal fired hard rights to the body.

In the final round, Morales seemed to gain the upper hand with her double left hooks, but her breast protector slipped out of place once again. As she attempted to put everything back into place, Medal fired a five-punch combination. The referee decided it was an unfair advantage and called the fight to let it go to the scorecards. It was ruled a majority decision 38-38, 40-36 twice for Medal.

“My combinations did the job,” said Medal, whose two pro fights have come against Morales.

Morales was disappointed by her bad luck.

“I couldn’t do what I wanted,” said Morales.

Medal said she’s been unable to find a match since last meeting Morales.

“No one wants to fight me,” Medal said. “I had two people pull out of fights.”

The former amateur star wants a busy schedule.

“Anybody at junior lightweight I’ll fight,” said Medal.

In other bouts:

Oxnard’s David Rodela (6-1-1) scored a unanimous decision over Fresno’s Manuel Garcia (3-3-1) in a six-round junior welterweight bout.

Oxnard’s Victor Barragan (4-1) captured a four-round decision over Lancaster’s Cornel Davis (1-1-1) in a heavyweight bout 59-55 twice and 60-54.

Mexico’s Gilberto Serna won his first pro fight in a flyweight contest over Nicaragua’s Missael Martinez (0-2). The scores were 40-35 on all three cards. A point was deducted in the third round when Martinez spit out his mouthpiece.

A middleweight bout featuring a former kickboxing world champion Allen Flores (1-1) against a San Diego boxer Lester Gonzalez making his pro debut, ended up the firecracker bout of the evening. Flores dropped southpaw Gonzalez in the second minute of the first round with a counter right hand. But Gonzalez caught Flores with a counter left and floored the kickboxer at the end of the first round.

The second round found Gonzalez landing a wicked left hand through Flores gloves and down he went again. He survived, but the next assault by Gonzalez took the fight out of Flores as he slumped to the floor. The referee called the fight at 2:53 of the second round. Gonzalez (1-0) is a former Cuban amateur fighter now training in San Diego.