ONTARIO, CALIF.-In celebration of its 18^th anniversary Thompson Boxing Promotions brought out the big guns including announcer Jimmy Lennon Jr. and two Latin American welterweight standouts on Friday.

It seemed like yesterday when Thompson Boxing opened its first show with local fighter Carlos “El Elegante” Bojorquez stopping Rosember Palacios in the main event in the year 2000 at this same venue.

On Friday, Nicaragua’s undefeated Roberto Arriaza (17-0) rumbled to a 10 round decision against Venezuela’s Juan Ruiz (20-2, 12 KOs) in the welterweight main event at the Doubletree Hotel. Among those in attendance were homegrown WBA super bantamweight champion Danny Roman.

Arriaza doesn’t have the speedy combinations of some of the welterweight contenders nor the swift accurate jab of an Errol Spence Jr., but he does have strength and has been taught how to use it skillfully. Against Venezuela’s Ruiz, the Nicaraguan Arriaza had his way for almost every round.

Although Ruiz packs power, his motor runs slow and he seldom unleashes more than two punches at a time. While Arriaza was busy firing combos up and down Ruiz was content to allow the Nicaraguan to dictate the pace and he did for all 10 rounds.

No knockdowns were scored and all three judges favored Arriaza 99-91, 98-92, 97-93.

Now Thompson has two top welterweights under its banner in Arriaza and Giovani Santillan. Could they be facing each other in the near future?

Other bouts

In an all-out war between two other Thompson fighters it was Santa Ana’s Erick Ituarte (20-1-1, 3 KOs) out-hustling Tijuana’s Carlos Carlson (21-4, 12 KOs) by unanimous decision after eight extremely close rounds in a featherweight clash.

Ituarte started off the fight quicker with blazing combinations to the head. But by the third round Carlson got his timing down and was firing back with accurate shots to close the distance in the fourth and fifth rounds. From that point on it was anyone’s fight. Ituarte proved to have more in the tank and took two of the last three rounds. Two judges scored it 77-75 and one 78-74 for Ituarte. Fans stood up and cheered both fighters before the decision was rendered.

Undefeated Michael Dutchover (9-0, 6 KOs) floored Milwaukee’s Mike Fowler (6-15) with right hand body shots in the second and third rounds. The end came at 1:19 of the third round as Fowler called it a day in the super featherweight contest. Dutchover lives in Midland, Texas but trains in Southern California.

Santa Ana’s Mario Hernandez (6-0, 3 KOs) used a relentless body attack early against Mexico’s Neri Garcia (1-5) then switched to the head in the third round. At 2:26 of the third of the bantamweight bout referee Raul Caiz had seen enough and ended the fight to give Hernandez the win by technical knockout.

South Central L.A.’s Ruben Torres (5-0, 5 KOs) floored Oxnard’s Sergio Gonzalez (0-2) once in the first and then at 2:15 of the third round with a savage exchange left hook that ended the fight abruptly. It took Gonzalez a while to recover but he was able to stand on his own after a few minutes following the lightweight match.

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