San Diego’s Chris Chatman KO’s Riverside’s Alberto Herrera

ONTARIO-San Diego’s Chris Chatman caught Riverside’s Alberto Herrera early with two first round knockdowns but needed three more rounds to complete the win on Friday.

“He was very adaptable,” said Chatman.

Herrera was undefeated and the hometown fighter but Chatman took that away early at the Doubletree Hotel with his quickness and strength as a southpaw. The crowd got their money’s worth anyway.

Chatman (8-1, 4 KOs) caught Herrera (7-1-1, 5 KOs) with some brutal left hands that shook him up early in the first round. The Riverside welterweight tried to fight his way out but only ran into more trouble against the clever southpaw who dropped him with a counter left. Herrera got up. When the fight resumed Herrera tried to fight off Chatman and ran into another big left hand and was dropped again. This time he struggled to get up but did.

From the outside Herrera was out-gunned so he took the fight to close quarters and found more success inside. But still Chatman’s movement and slips enabled him to avoid Herrera’s biggest punches in the second round.

Though both worked each other in close quarters Herrera’s best round was the third round when a right uppercut found the mark. Chatman brushed it off and kept moving his head side to side and changing his proximity. Herrera kept countering looking for that big punch. It never came for the Riverside fighter.

The fourth round saw Chatman time a perfect left hand counter that wobbled Herrera’s head and legs. Though he did not go down referee Ray Corona jumped in to stop the fight. It was a good stoppage at 2:47 of the fourth round.

“I saw that he fought that Mexican style with no angles,” said Chatman. “He didn’t feint, he was right there but he fought like a warrior. I thank my old trainer Pepe Morales for teaching me how to fight that style. He knew I would be fighting a lot of Mexican fighters.”

Other bouts

Downey’s hard-hitting Chris Rizo (6-0-1, 3 KOs) had been knocking out guys but against Riverside’s Alex Viramontes (9-7, 3 KOs), who was returning to the ring after a two year absence, he had to fight more strategically. In the first three rounds both fighters fought evenly with the southpaw Rizo working the body while Viramontes countered to the head and body. In the fifth round the Riverside fighter seemed to tire as Rizo continued to move in carefully with combinations. The sixth and final round saw Rizo catch Viramontes with a left cross that staggered the gritty fighter. From there on it was Rizo stalking the more experienced Viramontes who used his experience to survive the round. All three judges scored it 60-54 for Rizo but it seemed much closer in the first three rounds of the junior welterweight battle.

Coming off a tremendous war in his last outing Oscar “El Terrible” Andrade (3-0, 3 KOs( went left hand crazy again. This time Federico Martinez (0-1) was the opponent. A dozen left hands including one to the body dropped Martinez for good at 2:07 of the first round. It was Andrade’s second knockout victory in a row. In Andrade’s last fight at Club Nokia he put on one of the best fights at that venue in winning a close war with East L.A’s Ramon Valadez the stable mate of Frankie Gomez.

After a pensive first round Palmdale’s Donyil Livingston (2-0, 2 KOs) found the antidote for Steve Macomber’s experience with some well-placed counter right hands in the second round. Macomber (3-10-1) was floored with the right but survived. Livingston began waiting for openings for the counter right and found it at 2:55 of the second round and down went Macomber violently. Referee Ray Corona immediately stopped the fight.

In a lightweight bout featuring two fighters making pro debuts it was San Fernando’s Sergio Nunez (1-0) that proved the more efficient in stopping Washington’s Mike Cross (0-1). Nunez found the mark for his double left hooks and nearly dropped his opponent in the first round. Cross fought his way out of trouble and took a lot of punishment but continued to fight. The second round wasn’t very good for Cross who was finally dropped with that same double left hook. He beat the count and was caught with another left hook. He stumbled to the floor awkwardly and referee Ray Corona stopped the fight at 2:36 of the second round.

Daniel Roman needed only 43 seconds to win his pro debut with a vicious left hook to the belly that turned Cristian Cruz (2-2) toward the ropes in agony. He never hit the floor but could not fight on as Raul Caiz Sr. waved the fight over in the bantamweight fight.