Coachella Prospects Manny Flores, Grant Flores and Jose Sanchez All Win at Fantasy Springs

Manny “Gucci” Flores and his two Coachella Valley compadres emerged victorious at Fantasy Springs Casino on Thursday. Two by knockout.

Flores (18-1, 14 Kos), a tall southpaw bantamweight, needed less than two minutes to collapse the hopes of Victor Olivo (21-5-1) in front of several hundred fans at Fantasy Springs Casino.

A sudden attack to the body that included a left to the liver ended Olivo’s fight at 1:50 of the first round. Referee Thomas Taylor counting out the fighter from Hermosillo, Mexico.

“As soon as I landed that punch, I saw his veins popping out,” said Flores who is trained by brothers Joel and Antonio Diaz.

Manny’s cousin Grant Flores (7-0, 5 Kos) battered Puerto Rico’s Luis Caraballo (7-5-1) for six rounds but could not break his spirit. A left hook to the body floored Caraballo in the fifth round, but he toughed it out

Despite sustaining heavy punishment in the super welterweight fight, Caraballo made it through all six rounds. Grant Flores, the cousin of Manny, was declared the winner by unanimous decision.

In the semi-main event Jose “Tito” Sanchez (14-0, 8 Kos) looked like he might be overrun by Mexico City’s Edwin Palomares (18-6-3) in the first two rounds of a featherweight match. He made a stand in the third round and things slowly turned around.

Sanchez sporting bleached blonde hair began to gain steam in the third round and matched the punch output of Palomares. Little by little the Coachella fighter began to sharpen his attack and forced the Mexico City fighter to re-think his strategy.

In the seventh round a perfect right cross by Sanchez stunned Palomares who could not avoid the accurate seven-punch volley that followed him and sent him through the ropes. The fight was stopped at 53 seconds of the seventh round.

Sanchez remains undefeated.

“My performance wasn’t great in the earlier rounds because I wasn’t letting go yet, but once I threw my right hand, it connected, and that’s what we were waiting for,” said Sanchez.

Other bouts

Coachella’s Cayden Griffith (2-0, 2 Kos) remained undefeated with a third round knockout over North Carolina’s Markus Bowes (3-7) in a welterweight scrap.

Colorado’s Daniel “Junebug” Garcia (10-0, 8 Kos) knocked out Oxnard’s Jorge Villegas (14-3, 13 Kos) in the second round in a battle between lightweight sluggers. Garcia knocked down Villegas twice.

Santa Ana’s Johnny “Sugarcane” Canas (6-0) defeated San Jose’s Pedro Cruz (3-6) by decision in a six-round lightweight match.

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