On the eve of the big dance (Oscar De La Hoya’s “Homecoming” fight with Steve Forbes) lightweight contender Vicente Escobedo found himself in a tougher than expected tango with Argentine Roberto Arrieta. 

Entering the ring with 43 professional fights, Arrieta proved an experienced and durable foe. “I had him, but the guy has a lot of experience and I couldn’t finish him”, explained Escobedo following the fight.  In victory Escobedo delivered a performance worthy of headlining a night of fight action at the Home Depot Center, Carson, CA.     

Escobedo (17-1, 11 KOs) won the first behind a stirring jab and then dominated the second when he put a right hand behind it.  Arrieta (27-13-4, 10 KOs) charged back in the third when he attacked Escobedo with hooks to the body.   Escobedo’s jab returned in the fourth and with it control of the round.  The fifth was fought at close range, favoring the hooking Arrieta.  His body shots hurt Escobedo near the end of the round and were enough to win it for Arrieta.  In the sixth an Escobedo combination resulted in the only knockdown of the fight. 

Escobedo looked to finish the contest in the seventh with a barrage of power punches.  The eighth was a repeat of the seventh and was also won by the surging Escobedo.  Arrieta slowed in the ninth, finally succumbing to Escobedo’s 1-2 combinations.  Yet when the tenth arrived Arrieta was game and gave almost as good as he got.  Finally tallies rendered Escobedo a 99-90, 99-90 & 97-92 victor. 

The fast hands and accurate two-fisted punching of rising bantamweight Yonnhy Perez proved too much for Manuel Sarabia of Culiacan, MX. 

Perez, undefeated with 16 wins and 12 KOs, overwhelmed Sarabia (16-25-9, 10 KOs) for much of the fight.   Using a crisp jab from the outside and accurate combinations on the inside, Perez controlled his opponent and the fight.  

A Perez right-left combination to the head nearly ended the fight in the third.  But Sarabia came to fight and willingly traded three blows for one. 

When the decision was rendered the scorecards favored Perez 60-54, 60-54 & 59-55.   

In an East meets West matchup, New York’s Jeffrey Resto bested California’s Hector “The Mongoose” Alatorre over ten junior welterweight rounds.   The pairing pitted the 5’11” Resto (22-2, 13 KOs) against a diminutive 5’7” Alatorre (15-4, 5 KOs).  

The difference in reach appeared even greater than the four inch difference in height.  The result was a fight between a cobra and a mongoose.  

Resto used his reach advantage to keep Alatorre at bay on route to a 99-92, 99-92, 95-95 majority decision victory.      

In a four round, five knockdown war of attrition junior welterweight Hector Ramos (2-0) got off the canvas three times to win a unanimous decision victory over Shawn Waite.

In round one the fighters traded knockdowns multiple times resulting in four trips to the mat.  In round two Ramos went down a third time and struggled to survive the round.  

Though there were no official knockdowns in rounds three or four, the fighters went down a myriad of times due to wrestling throws and fatigue.  Shawn Wait (0-1) fought valiantly in losing his professional debut.