WBC Latino Bantam Title Taken by Carlos Carlson in Ontario

ONTARIO, CALIF.—Tall bantamweight slugger Carlos Carlson won the battle of Tijuana with a bruising and bloody unanimous decision win over Javier Gallo on Friday.

Carlson (13-0, 9 Kos) also captured the WBC Latino bantamweight title before a crowd of about 800 at the Doubletree Hotel. Both Carlson and Gallo hail from the border city and showed how they get it done with eight rounds of pummeling.

Gallo (21-9-1) started quickly despite his much shorter height and very short arms. The black haired bantamweight bored his way inside and managed to rain combinations on the curly-haired Carlson. It didn’t look good for Carlson in round one.

Things changed quickly in round two when Carlson connected with a short left hook to Gallo’s temple. From that moment on the complexion of the fight began to change in favor of the taller boxer. A clash of heads resulted in a gash alongside Carlson’s left eye, but it never proved too much to overcome.

Carlson began to find the range for his long armed right hands and that proved detrimental for Gallo whose short arms were only good for inside fighting. Despite the disparity in arm length, Gallo never quit in the fight though he had plenty of excuses. He took a pounding but continued to bore in with blows to the body.

After eight rounds all three judges scored it in favor of Carlson: 78-74 twice and 77-75.

Other bouts

San Pedro’s Isaac Zarate (7-1) used his southpaw speed to gain quick advantage over Mexico’s Christian Torres (3-5) in a bantamweight clash. For four rounds Zarate found the range to pummel Torres handily. Then the gas got low in Zarate’s tank and the fight changed quickly. Torres used right hand leads and body shots to climb back into the fight in rounds five and six. It was simply too late. All three judges scored in favor of Zarate 59-55 twice and 58-56.

Former Colombian Olympian Cesar Villaraga (2-0) couldn’t slip into gear in the opening round against Osman Rivera (2-6) in a lightweight match. But after the first round Villaraga quickly found the range and accuracy to pull ahead of the gritty Rivera. All three judges saw it in favor of Villaraga, but Rivera was not far behind in any round.

Sharp-shooting Joet Gonzalez (6-0) remained undefeated with a six-round decision win over Cesar Martinez (4-2-1) who gave a spirited battle in their bantamweight clash. Gonzalez was far more accurate but Martinez used a body attack to keep the fight close. All three judges saw it in favor of Gonzalez.

Two gargantuan heavyweights Jonnie Rice (0-0-1) and Justin Davenport (1-0-1) fought a sluggish four round fight to a majority draw after four rounds. There were very few punches thrown and almost no punches landed. The fight was a perpetual wrestling match with both heavyweights unable to land any clean blows.

Junior middleweight Neeco Macias (3-0) started quickly against Victor Altamirano (0-2) but found it hard to put away his opponent. Though Macias was able to hurt his opponent early, Altamirano soon found the loophole and scored heavily in the last two rounds. But all three judges saw Macias winning every round and the fight.

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