Ringside in Montebello: Big Upsets on a Small Show

RINGSIDE REPORT — Who knew that Montebello would be the city of upsets on Saturday night.

A large fight card shrunk to seven, then six bouts when one of the heavyweights collapsed into a seizure before stepping into the boxing ring at the Quiet Cannon Country Club in this LA County community.

Just two days ago about 12 bouts were scheduled, but the flu and other maladies struck the All Star Boxing and MMA promotions event and bouts just evaporated.

But a large crowd of more than 800 showed up and they walked into the large ballroom adorned in colorful t-shirts signifying their allegiance to certain prizefighters. All would be disappointed.

T-shirts proved to be the jinx as many favorites were beaten.

In the main event Jaime “Fabian” Ocegueda (pictured on the left) suffered a knockout by Ricardo Maldonado (7-6-1, 1 KO) in the last round despite being ahead on the scorecards. It was a rematch of a super lightweight fight that took place last October that ended in a draw.

Ocegueda (10-1-1, 6 KOs) was effective with his accurate power punches for a total of four rounds, but was caught with a body shot by Maldonado. Things suddenly turned around. At the two-minute mark of the sixth and final round, Maldonado connected for the first time with a shot to the jaw that sent Ocegueda reeling against the ropes. A few more blows sent Ocegueda to the floor. He struggled to get to his feet, then stumbled to his knees and was counted out at 2:35 of the round. His army of followers was in shock.

The co-main event saw Long Beach favorite Anthony “Huero” Sanchez (6-0-1, 6 KOs) walk into the ring with a loud cheer from his followers to face Burbank’s Christian Silva (5-6-2) in a six round featherweight clash. Sanchez was an undefeated power-punching 126-pounder expected to run over Silva, a boxer with five wins and six losses. But he never could tee off on Silva and each round it got more difficult to avoid getting smacked around by short, crisp blows. Neither fighter was hurt but after six rounds the judges scored it a majority draw.

Another upset saw Oscar Chavez (1-1) losing to Adrian Rodriguez (2-8-1) by majority decision. The winner jumped for joy.

Other bouts were more predictable.

Francisco Ochoa (9-0) started slowly against Eder Amaro (4-2) but soon found his range and used his athleticism to win by unanimous decision in a lightweight clash.

Joshua Zuniga (5-0) remained undefeated with a hard fought win against Mario Aguirre (2-6) who fought every round like it was his last. The lightweight match was a four round affair.

Salvador Perez (1-0) won his pro debut by knockout of L.A’s Imarjoe Miller (1-5) at 1:30 of the first round of the welterweight match.

A female bout expected to feature Lisa Porter versus Katonya Fisher was canceled because Porter had the flu. The promoter said it will be held in early February.

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