The Citizens Business Bank Arena in Ontario, California played host for ESPN’s Friday Night Fights. The venue was no where near a sellout, although I’m sure on television it appears so. Be that as it may, Cristobal “The Nightmare” Arreola (29-2, 25 KO’s) and Manuel “El Toro” Quezada (29-6, 18 KO’s) fought a scheduled 10 round Heavyweight bout which was for the WBC Mexican National Championship.

While both are considered Heavyweights here, there is a huge difference in their actual weight. Quezada came into the weigh-in at 228 pounds, while Arreola tipped the scale at 256, heavier by six pounds than when he fought Tomasz Adamek. It would be interesting to see if the extra poundage will work in Chris’ behalf.

The first round was a measuring of sorts, with both men getting in some shots but no real damage done. The second round was much of the same,, but with more punches thrown by the two fighters.

Round three seemed to have a lot more damage done by Chris on Manuel. Towards the end of the round Arreola hit Quezada with a hard left hook that staggered Manuel.

In the fourth, it seemed to be the same. Arreola hits a lot harder than Quezada, and it is obvious here. Round five saw Chris using combinations while Manuel couldn’t seem to get anything together. He was absorbing the punches, but never seemed to have what it took to really hurt Chris.

Some good exchanges about a minute into the sixth round, with Quezada connecting with more punches than he had throughout most of the fight. He landed a hard right overhand punch, but unfortunately for him, the bell rang before he could capitalize on it.

Arreola seemed to run out of steam a bit in the seventh round. He still was able to land some of his punches, but Quezada appeared to have a bit more energy in this round.

Round eight saw Chris find renewed life here, with Manuel taking his share of the punches again.

Quezada survived the ninth round, barely. He was knocked down twice within a few seconds by the hard left hands of Arreola. He was hurt at the end of the round as well, but the bell came just in time.

Arreola came back with even more energy in the tenth. He was connecting with his punches and, as has been the case throughout most of the fight, doing way more damage than Quezada.

About a minute into the eleventh round, the two stood in the center and battled like Bantamweights, with a flurry of exchanges. This happened several other times in the round, and I have to say that Quezada probably got that round. He finally was able to hit that elusive target that was Arreola.

The twelfth and final round saw Manuel go down yet again, but he was able to get to the final bell, something I for one was glad of. He gave too much and tried too hard to lose the fight by a knockout in that closing minute. This fight was not a pretty one, but it got going in the final rounds and gave the fans something to see and cheer about.

“I just kept going, and going, and going,” Arreola said after the fight. “I really wanted to put on a good show, and it was a constant battle.”

Chris also said that he had two bad hands, one of which he hurt quite a lot after he delivered the second knockdown to Quezada.

In the end we had a unanimous decision; 117-108, 118-107, and 118-107, all for our new Mexican National Heavyweight Champion, Chris Arreola.
 

A Welterweight fight on the card, provided the first televised fight, and this was a really good one. It was between Josesito Lopez (27-3, 15 KO’s) and Marvin Cordova (21-2-1, 11 KO’s). This fight was scheduled for eight rounds. While Cordova came out with both guns blazing, it took no time for Lopez to take on the challenge. He countered everything and got in shots of his own. Great first round.

Second round here, and the pace did not slow. Lopez landed some brutal body shots on Cordova, but Marvin answered back with some good punches, especially in the last minute of the round.

Same thing goes for round three. Both fighters have kept up such a pace that one wonders just how much longer they can keep this up. Low blow by Cordova in the fourth, but it didn’t slow anyone down. The punches were relentless. At this point, midway through, both men were giving their all.

Round five, and not a lot has changed. Lopez lands the harder body shots for sure, but Cordova kept trying to come back, and managed to find his opponents’ head several times.

Round six, and finally there is some slowing of the fighters, and it’s no wonder. These two have been non-stop for five rounds, and both looked understandably tired. Cordova got in some good shots here, probably his best, although Lopez had him on the ropes and scored some serious points as well.

Round eight, last round. Can you spell Warriors? What a brave display from both of these fighters. In the end it was a unanimous decision; 77-74, 78-73, 78-73, all for the winner, Josesito Lopez. What a great display by both fighters, and I admired them both.

The opening fight of the evening was between Bantamweights Michael Ruiz, Jr. (5-0, 2 K O’s) and Matthew Salazar (0-2). It seemed on paper that Salazar was overmatched here, and so he was, Matthew was knocked down twice in second and the fight was stopped at 2:18
 

Super Middleweight Shawn Estrada (8-0, 8 KO’s) had his way with Alex Armenta (7-2, 6 KO’s), as their fight was stopped at .57 of the first round of a scheduled four rounder. A good fighter is Estrada, but there was no time to see that here, as Alex was way overmatched. Armenta had not been in the ring since August of 2001. Yep, you read that right. To say Estrada had his way with Alex would be an understatement.

A scheduled eight round Light Welterweight fight saw Chad Bennett (25-4-3, 16 KO’s) going up against Gary Bergeron (11-6, 6 KO’s). In the first round both fighters punished the other with hard shorts to the body, and managed to get in some good head shots as well.

Action continued in the second, with Bennett doing most of the damage in this round. Bergeron is tough, no doubt about it, but Chad was in control. In the third round the action was a bit more in Gary’s corner, although it was still Bennett who scored the most hits, in succession, too. Bergeron’s style is wild, and if had hit Chad with some of the shots he wound up for, there might have been real trouble for Chad.

Round five saw Bennett knock down Bergeron. Chad was beginning to play a tune on the head and body of Gary.

Round six – ditto round five.

Midway through round seven the lights were turned off in the center. Kinda hard to watch a fight, never mind trying to participate in the actual fight. About a minute or two later they came back on and action resumed.

When all was said and done we had another UD here, with Bennett being declared the winner, with scores of 80-71.

Matthew Villanueva (2-0, 2 KO) was put up against Alejo Guzman, who was making his professional debut. This fight was in the Flyweight division for a scheduled four rounds, and this was also the last fight to close the night for Ontario.

A quick knockdown in the second, followed by another one a bit later in the fight gave the win to Villanueva. Guzman was game, but to no avail. He looked like a back alley fighter, jumping in and flailing about looking for something to hit. Unfortunately, he didn’t find enough, and the win went to Matt.

It was really great to see these exciting young fighters on this card, and I expect to watch some of them for a long time to come. My congratulations to Chris Arreola for his capture of the Mexican National Heavyweight Championship.


Be safe and God Bless,

Viva La Raza,

Barb.