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Mexico’s Kenia Enriquez TKOs Jolene Blackshear For Female NABF Title

Published

11 years ago

April 5, 2014

Kenia Enriquez vs Jolene Blackshear 04 04 2014 4 of 13 4880d SAN DIEGO-Mexico’s Kenia Enriquez captured the vacant NABF junior flyweight title and Amaris Quintana also won to the approval of the sold out crowd on Friday.

Tijuana’s Enriquez (11-0, 6 Kos; seen landing in Ray Flores photo) stopped San Diego’s Jolene Blackshear (8-5, 3 Kos) in the seventh round before a star-studded audience at Four Points Sheraton Hotel. The Bobby D Presents fight card also featured three men’s bouts. In the crowd were Chris Arreola, Josesito Lopez, Carlos Molina, Oscar Molina, Antonio Orozco and Chris Martin.

Blackshear, 43, was not there to lose and tried her best to work inside the longer reach of Enriquez. The quick jab of the Mexican boxer kept the San Diego fighter at bay and the quick combinations behind the jab were powerful. For two rounds it was all Enriquez.

The third round was also an Enriquez round as she fired combinations and quickly got out of range. In and out she would shoot combos and quickly step back and move slightly to one side or the other. Blackshear seemed to be measuring the distance and looking for an entrance.

After several careful attacks in the previous rounds, the Mexican brunette began to increase the attack against Blackshear in round four. But it also gave the San Diego boxer more opportunities to catch her with her favorite weapon the counter right hand. One of those counters bloodied the Mexican fighter’s nose.

Maybe it was the blood trickling down her nose, but in round five Enriquez opened up with a strong right cross and a solid three-punch combination that connected. A right uppercut-left hook combination staggered Blackshear but she remained composed and caught Enriquez with another counter right. An Enriquez left hook caught Blackshear but she still looked dangerous and seemed to be setting up the younger Mexican fighter for yet another counter right.

Both female boxers opened up the sixth round with some serious action. Enriquez fired a six-punch volley and Blackshear responded with a solid one-two connect. The time for strategy seemed over and both female boxers were looking for the kill shot.

Enriquez still had blood trickling down her nose and Blackshear’s face seemed puffy when round seven began. Once again Enriquez ignited the action and Blackshear responded. During one of their exchanges Enriquez connected with three consecutive snapping left hooks that caught Blackshear flush in one of the neutral corners. Enriquez recognized Blackshear was hurt and immediately attacked with a fury. The referee Jose Cobian stopped the fight at 1:26 of round seven.

“It was just determination and guts that won this fight,” said Enriquez, 20, after the fight. “I wanted a knockout here in San Diego for my fans.”

Diamond Girl

In the co-main event Amaris “Diamond Girl” Quintana (7-2-2) of San Diego defeated Susan Reno (1-2-1) of New York City in a six round junior flyweight contest.

Quintana usually boxes and moves and uses her movement to score when the openings come but not in this fight. The petite junior flyweight fired away from the opening bell with a pressure style that seldom saw her move backward.

The San Diego female boxer was raining combinations on Reno who couldn’t seem to gather any momentum for the first two rounds. It was all Quintana who rained body blow after body blow on the New York female fighter.

Reno caught her footing in round three and finally adjusted to the fast pace. She began to time Quintana’s rushes and was able to land some of her own blows for the first time in the fight.

Both women fired away in round four. A welt appeared on the corner of the left eye of Quintana who didn’t seem to have any problems with serious swelling. Though Reno landed some blows Quintana was still landing far more.

Quintana opened up the fifth round with a strong left jab. Reno wasn’t about to absorb another jab and countered with a strong right. Quintana erupted with a five-punch combination including an uppercut, but Reno was firing back.

“I thought for sure I was going to stop her,” said Quintana. “But she was tough.”

In the final round Quintana’s strength and volume punching seemed the difference in the fight. Reno kept firing and landing but just couldn’t match Quintana’s quantity. All three judges scored every round for Quintana 60-54.

“I had to be in shape. Instead of going backwards I kept going forward in this fight,” Quintana said. “I landed a lot of body shots.”

Other bouts

San Diego’s David Barragan (8-0-1) defeated Utah’s Eddie Cordova (4-6-1) by unanimous decision in a junior middleweight match.

Adrian Vargas (8-0-1, 6 KOs) was lucky to win a technical knockout against Palm Springs’ Luis Cervantes (7-7-3) who seemed to win the first two rounds. A severe swelling on Cervantes left eye forced the referee to stop the fight. Otherwise, Cervantes was headed to a win or draw.

L.A.’s Jarrod Tennant (3-0) defeated Mario Angeles (1-5-1) of San Diego by unanimous decision.

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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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