The Standing Eight Count- Ringside at Pechanga for Solo Boxeo

By Dave Wilcox

A sold out crowd of 2475 jammed the beautiful Pechanga Resort and Casino in Temecula, California for a good night of boxing action. This Golden Boy/Ringside Ticket promoted show was originally going to be a Sergio Mora headlined card. When it was announced that Mora secured a fight with “Sugar” Shane Mosley for the Staples Center in September, in came a middleweight bout with Craig McEwan taking on tough ring worm Danny Perez of Carlsbad, Ca. as the new main event.

“Scottish” Craig McEwan hails from Scotland, and is trained by Freddie Roach and fights out of the Wildcard gym in Hollywood, CA. Coming into this bout, McEwan sported an undefeated 18-0 record, but never had he been in with such a seasoned veteran like Perez. Danny Perez is a 14 year vet of the sweet science and has been in the ring with some of the best, including two fights with Antonio “Plasterito” Margarito.

As the bell sounded for round one, Perez went right after the youngster and threw bombs to the body and to the head. Perez landed a viscous left hook to the head of McEwan and he appeared wobbled. Just when he seemed to compose himself, “BAM” another left hook to the head was delivered by Perez. McEwan looked ready for an early night. He showed heart and smarts and by the end of round one, McEwan gathered himself and made it to the bell.

In round two, it appeared that the great Freddie Roach did some talking to Craig NcEwan and “Scottish” Craig came out strong by moving and throwing combinations. He boxed the ears off of Perez for 2:30 seconds and then out of nowhere, Perez landed the same left hook that had McEwan in so much trouble in the first stanza. This one proved to be more trouble as a cut opened over the eye of Craig McEwan. Perez sensed that he had the upper hand and started taunting McEwan.

In round three, McEwan continued to box and throw combinations. Even though he seemed to winning the fight, McEwan certainly looked the worse for wear and it seemed that Perez was setting him up for the later rounds. In round four, Perez landed a huge right hand that hurt McEwan. He followed up the right with something out of a rugby match and shoved the young Scott to the canvas. The crowd wanted a knockdown called, but referee, Ray Corona called it a push, and rightfully so.

A trend was developing with McEwan throwing more punches and Perez stalking his man, looking for a knockout. It became obvious from ringside that Perez would need to start putting punches together, rather than look for the KO.

If you were to judge the fight by the look of the two fighter’s faces, by the time we got to the eighth and ninth rounds, you would have thought McEwan was getting killed. Perez was indeed putting a physical beating on McEwan, but the kid was throwing more punches and moving nicely. In the final round, Perez needed a big finish and he tried like hell to make it so. He had a nice final round and pounded McEwan to the body as the bell sounded to end this very exciting bout. The crowd went crazy and appreciated the efforts of these two men. It was time to go to our favorite place in Boxing, the scorecards.

Referee Lou Moret scored the bout, 95-95. Judges Zack Young and Fritz Warner both had 97-93 for the winner and still undefeated, Craig McEwan. Yours truly had the bout scored 96-94 for McEwan.

The crowd was angry and Danny Lopez and his people were in riot mode over their disgust with the decision. In was a very unpopular decision with the crowd as well, but in the end, it was the correct decision.

Craig McEwan improves his record to 19-0 (10 KO) and Danny Perez drops to 34-8 (17 KO)

In the co-main event, featherweights grabbed the stage as young prospect Charles Huerta of Paramount, California took on tough guy Jonathan “Diamante” Arias in a six round affair. In the first round, Huerta landed two hard right hands that put Arias on one knee and then Huerta landed one more right for good measure as Arias was on a knee. No action was taken by the referee and “Diamante” held on for dear life and made it to the bell. In rounds two through four it was obvious that Huerta was a much better fighter, but Arias was certainly tough and doing what he could. In round five, Huerta really started to find the range and it appeared close to the end for Arias. As round six got going, Huerta came out quick and landed three monstrous lefts to the body that chopped Arias down like a tree and he hit the canvas. Arias made the count and the fight continued. Yet another big left to the body immediately put Arias in trouble again. Huerta followed that with two head shots and referee, Tony Krebs had seen enough and halted the bout at 1:40 of round six.

Charles Huerta jumps his record to 14-1 (7 KO) Jonathan Arias will go back to the drawing board with a 15-5 (8 KO) mark.

The Undercard:

Every once in a while, I watch an undercard fight and I feel like I’m watching a future champion in the early stages of his career. That feeling struck me again on Friday night as I watched undefeated Keith “Onetime” Thurman of Largo, Florida in a six round Jr. Middleweight bout against also undefeated Stalinn Lopez who hails from Miami, Florida.

“Onetime” has tremendous skill and looks like a seasoned pro already in his young career. In the first round, both guys went through the feeling out process, but it appeared that Thurman was measuring Lopez. Sure enough towards the end of the round, he landed a picture perfect left hook that sent Lopez crashing to the ground. Surprisingly, Lopez made the count and the bell sounded just as the referee was about to send him back out to the dogs. The second round began and the confidence surged for Thurman. He stalked Lopez until he found the home yet again for his beautiful left hook and down went Lopez again. This time he wouldn’t get the chance to make the count because referee Tony Krebs would stop counting and wave it off at 1:17 of round two. Keep an eye out for this kid Thurman because he appears to be a very talented young man.

Keith Thurman jumps to 13-0 (12 KO) and Stalinn Lopez heads back to Florida with a 7-1 (3 KO) record

In a four round Welterweight match, Anthony Martinez of Las Vegas squared off against Nicholaus Brannies of Lakewood, California. I think it took me longer to write this paragraph than it did for Martinez to knockout Brannies. Martinez came out fast winging shots. A hard right to the head of Brannies, followed by a viscous left hook to the body put Brannies down and Referee Tony Krebs didn’t bother counting and the bout was stopped at 1:37 of round one.

Anthony Martinez moves to 4-0 (4 KO) and Nicholaus Brannies falls to a stellar 1-6 (0 KO)

Super Middleweights were next up in a scheduled four round middleweight scrap. The winner of the “Best name of the night” award, Cerresso Fort out of St. Paul, Minnesota was in there against Steven Macomber from Sacramento, California. This bout was basically a showcase bout for Fort, but he made it much tough than it needed to be by being lazy with his punches and showing a lack of defense. By round three, Fort finally started putting some hard shots together and looked like a much crisper fighter. Fort went on to dominate round four and win a unanimous decision by the scores of 40-36. Cerresso Fort has obvious talent, but if he doesn’t learn the art of defense and effort, he will have a tough time as he steps up the competition.

Cerresso Fort’s record improves to 10-0 (8 KO) and Steven Macomber falls to 3-9-1 (0 KO)

The final bout of the evening brought us a Super Middleweight attraction with undefeated Dion Savage of Flint, Michigan going up against forty eight fight veteran, Demetrius Davis. As the fighters came to ring and I saw the 20-22-5 record of Davis, I wasn’t hopeful that this would be competitive. The old guy came out strong in round one and surprised the young Savage with some nice movement and combination punching. Savage showed all of his inexperience by head hunting and completely ignoring the body, while at the same time, Davis was doing everything he could to frustrate the youngster by holding and grabbing. In round three, the tide changed as Savage landed a sharp right hand that knocked down Davis. He would make the count no problem and this is about the time I faded out. This became an ugly fight with the holding of Davis and Savage’s inability to land clean punches. They both threw wild punches and most didn’t land. The bout ended up going the full six rounds and Dion Savage won by unanimous decision as all three judges scored it 59-54. I was just happy it was over and thought to myself, “that is twenty-five minutes of my life that I’ll never get back.”

Dion Savage stays undefeated at 9-0 (5 KO) but has a lot of work to do. Demetrius Davis might want to find a new career path as he drops to 20-23-5 (8 KO)

Overall, it was just another great night of Boxing at The Pechanga Resort and Casino in Temecula, California. There is nothing like a good fight card to get a guy ready for the weekend.

Keeppunching

*Dave Wilcox serves as the West Coast Correspondent for the “Talkin Boxing with Billy C” Radio Show. Tune in on Mondays to hear Dave Talk Boxing with Billy C. Talkin Boxing with Billy C. runs LIVE five days a week and for two hours a day. The show has AM and FM radio affiliates throughout the USA and Canada. It can also be heard anytime on podcast. Go to www.talkinboxing.com for all info on the show.