East L.A.’s Xavier Montelongo Wins California State Title

MONTEBELLO, CALIF.—Xavier Montelongo of East L.A. captured the vacant California State featherweight title with a blistering inside attack to win by unanimous decision over Spain’s Cesar Martinez on Friday.

The crowd at the Quiet Cannon saw Montelongo start quickly against Martinez in a featherweight war that seldom saw the two fighters more than 12 inches apart. The non-stop attack was the key to Montelongo’s win over Martinez (4-5-2).

The last time Montelongo (8-3-1, 2 Kos) fought at the Quiet Cannon he seemed out of sync and had trouble deciding when to attack and when to retreat. In this fight, he moved forward like a lawnmower without a reverse gear. Montelongo was able to show off his reflexes on the inside as he slipped punches and returned fire to the body and more body. When that got too monotonous he fired lefts and rights to snap Martinez’s head back.

After six rounds the judges scored it 59-55 twice and 58-56, all for Montelongo.

Other bouts

Eddie De La Huerta (2-0, 2 Kos) walked into the ring with a large fan base in the arena and stormed across the ring to meet Palm Springs fighter Rick Quevedo (1-3) with a barrage of punches. Quevedo tried his best to keep De La Huerta from over-running him but was caught with a left uppercut and down he went in the first round. He beat the count but was battered to the head and body. Referee Lou Moret almost stopped the fight but let it continue. The second round saw De La Huerta continue the pummeling and Quevedo tried valiantly to continue but was out-gunned. The referee stopped the fight at 1:47 of the second round to give De La Huerta the win by technical knockout.

A pair of MMA fighters turned to the boxing ring to carry out a grudge match and it didn’t take long to find out the winner when Jared Papazian (1-0) knocked down Ruben Warr (0-1) with a hooking right, then slammed him down a second time with a right hand bomb for a knockout win. The fight was stopped at 2:59 of the first round of the junior welterweight match. Before the fight both challenged each other to a winner take all match. Papazian won both purses with his knockout win.

La Habra’s Ricardo Garcia (4-3-1) eked out a decision win over Arizona’s Missael Chacon (1-9) in a featherweight bout that went the whole four rounds. Chacon had his best moments in the last two rounds but couldn’t convince the judges.

After four rough and tumble rounds “Rowdy” Montgomery (1-0-1) and Jesus Sanchez (1-0-2) fought to a draw. Though Montgomery seemed the harder and more accurate puncher, Sanchez was the more aggressive and kept trying to keep pressure on the taller Montgomery.

Lucious Johnson (1-0) of L.A. knocked down Sacramento’s Luis Cruz (0-1-2) in the fourth round to win his pro debut by unanimous decision after four rounds of a junior middleweight bout. Johnson showed pretty good moves during the exchanges.

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