Gato Roman Kos Cardona; Heavyweight Mitchell Remains Unbeaten in SoCal

ONTARIO, CALIF.—Lightweight prospect Jose “Gato” Roman looked on paper to have a rough night against Guadalajara’s Martin Cardona. You can tear that paper up.

Before an enthusiastic crowd at the Doubletree Hotel that numbered more than 1,000, Roman (20-1-1, 14 KOs) chased and battered the wide-eyed innocent Cardona (18-5, 13 Kos), who looked like a deer about to be run over by a Mack truck on Friday’s Thompson Boxing Promotion fight card.

Cardona felt the force of Roman’s first blow and decided running was better than succumbing to a concussion. For the first two rounds Cardona was able to scamper from side to side while rarely firing return blows. Roman was firing laser-pointed bombs at the fleet Mexican fighter but nothing was connecting on the chin.

Finally, in the opening seconds of round three, Roman unloaded some left hooks to the body and head and Cardona sunk to the floor after absorbing a few of those blockbuster blows. Referee Raul Caiz called the fight 38 seconds into the third round.

In a super bantamweight battle it was L.A.’s Danny Roman (13-2-1, 5 Kos) who emerged with a unanimous decision win over Mexico City’s Giovani Caro (23-15-4, 19 Kos) after eight very bloody rounds. Caro was cut due to an accidental clash of heads and had blood pouring out for most of the fight. Roman did very good body work early in the fight and it looked like a knockout was looming. But Caro fought through the blood and body shots and was able to compete in the second half of the fight. In the final round both fighters landed crushing shots but were unable to hurt the other. All three judges scored it 80-72 for Roman but Caro got his licks in all through the fight.

Heavyweight prospect LaRon Mitchell (7-0, 7 Kos), a southpaw, found himself paired against another southpaw in Sylvester Barron (8-5, 4 Kos), but quickly figured him out. A double right hook connected and sent Barron to the floor in the first round. In round two, a counter left cross followed by another left blasted Barron out at 2:21 of the round for a knockout win by Mitchell.

Super middleweight Rudy Puga (5-0, 5 Kos) dominated Denver’s Katrell Strauss (2-5) before lowering the boom to the body in the fourth and final round. Puga, who hails from Salinas, California showed good form, speed and power in his win over the very sturdy Strauss. Some powerful body shots by Puga ended the fight at 41 seconds into the fourth round for a knockout.

Eridanni Leon (2-1) showed that even a little experience in the ring counts as he defeated debuting welterweight Elih Lizama (0-1) by majority decision after four rounds 40-36 twice and 38-38. Lizama showed decent defense but was unable to land enough forceful blows against Leon.

Anaheim’s Miguel Trejo won the battle between debuting middleweights when Whittier’s Jonathan Aceves had his corner stop the fight at 2:58 of round three. Trejo was able to land more effective blows but Aceves refused to give up. He kept trying to land that one big bomb but ran out of gas.

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