Manny “Gucci” Flores and Jorge Chavez Fight to a Draw at Fantasy Springs

Southern California’s top super featherweight prospects Manny “Gucci” Flores and Jorge Chavez fought to a 10-round draw on Thursday.

Everyone left disappointed.

Coachella’s Flores (11-1-1) met San Diego’s Chavez (11-0-1) to determine who was the superior fighter and neither was able to convince the judges in front of a sold-out crowd at Fantasy Springs Casino.

They are going to need to do it again.

Chavez had predicted a knockout win against the taller southpaw Flores. But once the first bell rang the undefeated fighter skated around the ring not allowing Flores to unleash his deadly combination punching.

Instead, Chavez kept out of range and fired quick blows toward the end of the rounds. Flores seemed slightly off-tilt for the first several rounds. He managed to land a few blows, but not enough.

Around the fourth round Chavez either tired or decided to change pace as he exchanged blows in the middle of the ring. Each connected but neither was able to clearly punish the other.

Chavez proved to be the quicker puncher and more agile on his feet. Flores was tireless in pursuing his foe and slowly he began to catch the San Diego fighter with more and more blows. Left hooks to the body during exchanges by Flores were met by short shots from Chavez.

Though Chavez connected with several uppercuts Flores kept punching and found success by firing combinations.

Neither fighter was able to clearly demonstrate superiority. It was not a surprise that while one judge saw Chavez the winner 97-93, the two others scored it even, 95-95.

“I underestimated his conditioning,” said Chavez. “The only thing he showed was pressure.”

Flores seemed surprised at Chavez’s style of fighting.

“I thought we were going to come out here and bang; it’s hard to hit somebody that keeps running,” said Flores who is coached by Joel Diaz at the Diaz brothers boxing academy in nearby Indio.

Other Bouts

In an evenly fought 10-round super welterweight slugfest, Farid Ngoga (11-1) squeaked past Jordan Panthen (11-1) to win by majority decision. No knockdowns were scored but the two could not separate themselves from the other. After 10 rounds one judge scored 95-95 while two others saw it 96-94 and 97-93 for Ngoga who fights out of Arizona but is originally from Democratic Republic of Congo.

Local welterweight phenom Cayden Griffiths (6-0, 6 KOs) worked Costa Rican veteran David Lobo Ramirez (18-6, 13 KOs) up and down in search of a weakness for three rounds. He found it in the fourth round with a sizzling left hook to the body that left the hard-edged veteran gasping on the floor unable to beat the count at 1:54 of round four.

The body-shot win by 19-year-old Griffiths (pictured) stretched his knockout streak to six straight as a professional.

Grant Flores (11-0, 9 KOs) won by technical knockout at two seconds into the second round when Todd Manuel (23-24-1) was unable to continue after injuring his right hand.

Leonardo Sanchez (9-0) won by knockout over Abraham Valdez in the fourth round in a super featherweight bout. Sanchez pummeled Valdez until referee Ray Corona stopped the match at 2:16 of the fourth round.

Middleweight Fabian Guzman (8-0) rolled to a unanimous decision victory over Brian Arregui (11-6) after eight rounds.

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