Night For Out-of-Towners in Ontario: Claggett and Nichol Win

ONTARIO, CALIF.-It was a bad night for the hometown guy fighters with Canada's Steve Claggett and Denver's Shawn Nichol upsetting the Californians. Only female local fighter Lissette Medel was able to finish with a victory on Friday.

Claggett (15-0-1, 10 KOs) used a right hand to rally to victory in a junior welterweight main event at the Doubletree Hotel on the Thompson Boxing Promotions card. The more than 1,200 in the audience cheered the action packed fight card, regardless of the winners.

Both Ricky Duenas (12-2, 6 KOs) of El Monte and Claggett of Calgary came in with reputations as junior welterweights who could punch. It didn't take long to see why.

Duenas floored Claggett with a straight left through the gloves followed by a four-punch combination in round one. The Canadian got up slightly woozy but was not hurt enough for Duenas to jump on.

“I wasn't hurt bad. It took me a moment to get my thoughts,” said Claggett.

In the very next round Claggett turned on the engines and toward the end of the round caught Duenas clean with a sidewinder right hand. Duenas hit the canvas hard but got up and the bell rang ending the stanza.

Claggett seemed to hit Duenas with the same right hand in round three. Duenas absorbed a lot of blows but rallied with shorter combinations. Still, those rights were connecting.

After Duenas made some adjustments it looked like he might make a fight out of it but once again Claggett connected with that sidewinder right and down went Duenas for the second time. He beat the count and tried to hold on but was still getting hit. He made the end of the round but Duena's corner ended the fight wisely.

“My goal was not to come and lay down. Not to lose,” said Claggett. “I knew he was going to be tough.”

Other bouts

Colorado's Shawn Nichol (7-12, 5 KOs) started quickly to beat Riverside's Richard Contreras (9-1-1, 8 KOs) by majority decision after six rounds of an action-packed junior featherweight clash. The left-handed Nichol landed a lot of combinations early in the fight but Contreras came roaring back with some big body shots. Round five was pivotal for Nichol used a blistering attack to pin Contreras on the ropes. One judge Eddie Hernandez scored it 57-57 and judges Marty Denkin and Fernando Villareal scored it 58-56 for Nichol.

Whittier's hard-hitting Alejandro Luna (11-0, 8 KOs) won by unanimous decision against Mexican veteran Adolfo Landeros (21-29-2, 10 KOs) after six rounds of a junior lightweight bout. Luna landed some big blows but Landeros used his experience to keep the killing blows from getting through. All three judges scored it 60-54 for Luna.

In a female junior lightweight match Maywood's Lissette Medel (8-1-1) beat Mexico's Cynthia Munoz (7-2, 4 KOs) with a good body attack coupled with good defense. The taller Munoz scored well in round four with overhand rights but found it difficult to score with anything else. Medel was quicker and used counters to catch Munoz in the beginning. Then she attacked the body with some solid shots from both hands. All three judges scored it 60-54 for Medel.

Riverside's Juan “El Pochito” Reyes scored a shutout after six rounds of a junior featherweight clash against Mexico's Jose Angel Cota (15-9-1, 11 KOs). Reyes used his hurricane storm output of blows to win every round, but Cota showed his skills in staying in the fight until the end. All three judges scored it 60-54 for Reyes.

Long Beach heavyweight Javier Torres (4-0, 2 KOs) needed about five seconds to land a counter left hook to floor Utah's Gary Cobia (0-3) in round one. About a minute later, after some patient body shots, the end comes for Cobia with a pair of blows to the body at 2:05 of round one.

After four rounds filled with clinching the judges ruled it correctly a majority draw between Avery Gibson (0-1-2) and Canada's Matt Kadian (6-1-1) after four rounds of a heavyweight contest. Both boxers suffocated themselves throughout the fight.