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East L.A.’s Frankie Gomez KOs Jason Davis In 25 Seconds…AVILA

Published

14 years ago

April 29, 2011

Frankie_Gomez_stalks_AA photo by Al Applerose

LOS ANGELES-Junior welterweight prospect Frankie Gomez saw a junior middleweight standing in front of him and chopped him down with two blows before a stunned crowd at Club Nokia on Thursday night.

The East Los Angeles prizefighter showed off his new tools with a vicious display of accuracy in knocking out Jason Davis (11-9-1), who out-weighed Gomez by nine pounds.
And he did it in front of newly crowned WBC welterweight champ Victor Ortiz.

Gomez (9-0, 7 KOs) is now being trained by Abel Sanchez with help from Ben Lira. If you know your boxing history you’ll recognize that tandem as the trainers who guided Terry Norris to the world title in the 1990s. The former world champion was in the audience.

“We went through six weeks of training in Big Bear for just a 25-second fight,” said Sanchez, who owns a training facility in Big Bear. “But that’s OK, we’ll take it anytime.”

Unable to secure an opponent for Gomez, they looked for somebody a little larger and found Davis. But with only a week’s notice it was too much weight to lose at the scales to Gomez’s team agreed to make the fight.

They knew what they were doing.

At the sound of the opening bell Davis delivered a hay-maker from Hell, but Gomez nimbly slipped that blow and another before setting up his own left and right combination. The right hand found its mark and down went Davis for the count of 10.

“I hit him on the temple and down he went,” said Gomez somberly.

It was Gomez' first training camp with new trainer Sanchez and the 19-year-old seemed to relish the new teachings.

“I like learning new things,” said Gomez.

One more thing he learned is that he will be dropping down from the junior welterweight class to the 135-pound lightweight division.

“He’s walking around at 142 pounds,” said Sanchez. “It will be easy for him to fight at lightweight.”

Look for Gomez to look like Victor Ortiz in the lightweight division.

Other bouts

Ernesto Ocon (3-0, 2 KOs) knocked out Miguel Pizzaro (1-2) by stunning the Puerto Rican fighter with a left hand to the head, then a half dozen well-placed body shots that folded Pizarro into a heap at 58 seconds of the third round of a welterweight bout.

Venezuela’s Alfonso Blanco (5-0, 2 KOs) punished Santa Ana’s Juan Carlos Diaz (7-13, 6 KOs) in a four-round junior middleweight bout. Two knockdowns in the first two rounds seemed to point toward an early night for Diaz, but he got stronger as the fight proceeded and Blanco got tired. Still, Blanco did most of the work and won by unanimous decision after four rounds. The Venezuelan is trained by Robert Garcia.

East L.A.’s Ramon Valadez (8-1, 4 KOs) went six rough rounds with Dominican Rafael Lora (11-5, 5 KOs) and emerged with a victory. All three judges scored it 59-55 for junior lightweight Valadez, who is Frankie Gomez’s stable mate.

New Mexico’s Fidel Maldonado (10-0, 9 KOs) forced the referee to stop the fight with Puerto Rico’s Jorge Cordero (4-7, 4 KOs) at 2:03 of the first round of a lightweight bout.

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David A. Avila

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2015 Fight of the Year – Francisco Vargas vs Takashi Miura

Published

9 years ago

January 4, 2016

The Sweet Science

The WBC World Super Featherweight title bout between Francisco Vargas and Takashi Miura came on one of the biggest boxing stages of 2015, as the bout served as the HBO pay-per-view’s co-main event on November 21st, in support of Miguel Cotto vs Saul Alvarez.

Miura entered the fight with a (29-2-2) record and he was making the fifth defense of his world title, while Vargas entered the fight with an undefeated mark of (22-0-1) in what was his first world title fight. Both men had a reputation for all-out fighting, with Miura especially earning high praise for his title defense in Mexico where he defeated Sergio Thompson in a fiercely contested battle.

The fight started out hotly contested, and the intensity never let up. Vargas seemed to win the first two rounds, but by the fourth round, Miura seemed to pull ahead, scoring a knock-down and fighting with a lot of confidence. After brawling the first four rounds, Miura appeared to settle into a more technical approach. Rounds 5 and 6 saw the pendulum swing back towards Vargas, as he withstood Miura’s rush to open the fifth round and the sixth round saw both men exchanging hard punches.

The big swinging continued, and though Vargas likely edged Miura in rounds 5 and 6, Vargas’ face was cut in at least two spots and Miura started to assert himself again in rounds 7 and 8. Miura was beginning to grow in confidence while it appeared that Vargas was beginning to slow down, and Miura appeared to hurt Vargas at the end of the 8th round.

Vargas turned the tide again at the start of the ninth round, scoring a knock down with an uppercut and a straight right hand that took Miura’s legs and sent him to the canvas. Purely on instinct, Miura got back up and continued to fight, but Vargas was landing frequently and with force. Referee Tony Weeks stepped in to stop the fight at the halfway point of round 9 as Miura was sustaining a barrage of punches.

Miura still had a minute and a half to survive if he was going to get out of the round, and it was clear that he was not going to stop fighting.

A back and forth battle of wills between two world championship level fighters, Takashi Miura versus “El Bandido” Vargas wins the 2015 Fight of the Year.

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Jan 9 in Germany – Feigenbutz and De Carolis To Settle Score

Published

9 years ago

January 4, 2016

The Sweet Science

This coming Saturday, January 9th, the stage is set at the Baden Arena in Offenburg, Germany for a re-match between Vincent Feigenbutz and Giovanni De Carolis. The highly anticipated re-match is set to air on SAT.1 in Germany, and Feigenbutz will once again be defending his GBU and interim WBA World titles at Super Middleweight.

The first meeting between the two was less than three months ago, on October 17th and that meeting saw Feigenbutz controversially edge De Carolis on the judge’s cards by scores of (115-113, 114-113 and 115-113). De Carolis scored a flash knock down in the opening round, and he appeared to outbox Feigenbutz in the early going, but the 20 year old German champion came on in the later rounds.

The first bout is described as one of the most crowd-pleasing bouts of the year in Germany, and De Carolis and many observers felt that the Italian had done enough to win.

De Carolis told German language website RAN.DE that he was more prepared for the re-match, and that due to the arrogance Feigenbutz displayed in the aftermath of the first fight, he was confident that he had won over some of the audience. Though De Carolis fell short of predicting victory, he promised a re-vamped strategy tailored to what he has learned about Feigenbutz, whom he termed immature and inexperienced.

The stage is set for Feigenbutz vs De Carolis 2, this Saturday January 9th in Offenburg, Germany. If you can get to the live event do it, if not you have SAT.1 in Germany airing the fights, and The Boxing Channel right back here for full results.

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2015 Knock Out of the Year – Saul Alvarez KO’s James Kirkland

Published

9 years ago

December 29, 2015

The Sweet Science

On May 9th of 2015, Saul “Canelo” Alvarez delivered a resonant knock-out of James Kirkland on HBO that wins the 2015 KO of the Year.

The knock-out itself came in the third round, after slightly more than two minutes of action. The end came when Alvarez delivered a single, big right hand that caught Kirkland on the jaw and left him flat on his back after spinning to the canvas.Alvarez was clearly the big star heading into the fight. The fight was telecast by HBO for free just one week after the controversial and disappointing Floyd Mayweather Jr. and Manny Pacquiao fight, and Alvarez was under pressure to deliver the type of finish that people were going to talk about. Kirkland was happy to oblige Alvarez, taking it right to Alvarez from the start. Kirkland’s aggression saw him appear to land blows that troubled the young Mexican in the early going. Alvarez played good defense, and he floored Kirkland in the first round, displaying his power and his technique in knocking down an aggressive opponent.

However, Kirkland kept coming at Alvarez and the fight entered the third round with both men working hard and the feeling that the fight would not go the distance. Kirkland continued to move forward, keeping “Canelo” against the ropes and scoring points with a barrage of punches while looking for an opening.

At around the two minute mark, Alvarez landed an uppercut that sent Kirkland to the canvas again. Kirkland got up, but it was clear that he did not have his legs under him. Kirkland was going to try to survive the round, but Alvarez had an opportunity to close out the fight. The question was would he take it?

Alvarez closed in on Kirkland, putting his opponent’s back to the ropes. Kirkland was hurt, but he was still dangerous, pawing with punches and loading up for one big shot.

But it was the big shot “Canelo” threw that ended the night. Kirkland never saw it coming, as he was loading up with a huge right hand of his own. The right Alvarez threw cracked Kirkland in the jaw, and his eyes went blank. His big right hand whizzed harmlessly over the head of a ducking Alvarez, providing the momentum for the spin that left Kirkland prone on the canvas.

Saul “Canelo” Alvarez went on to defeat Miguel Cotto in his second fight of 2015 and he is clearly one of boxing’s biggest stars heading into 2016. On May 9th Alvarez added another reel to his highlight film when he knocked out James Kirkland with the 2015 “Knock Out of the Year”.

Photo by naoki fukuda

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