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Nery Breaks Down “Crazy A”;
Punch Out In Pomona Did Not Disappoint
By Albert Castillo
Photos: William Trillo
Oscar De La Hoya’s Golden Boy Productions provided the
fireworks Saturday night with a six fight card at the
Fox Theater in Pomona, California. In the main event of
the evening Luis Nery (34-1, 26 KO’s) out of Tijuana
Mexico, and Azat, (Crazy A), Hovhannisyan ( 21-4, 17
KO’s) of Los Angeles, squared off in a super
bantamweight title eliminator.
The fight was electric from the opening round in which
there was no feeling out. The warriors went right to
work. Nery’s speed was on display as he flurried with
rapid combinations that left Hovhannisyan stunned. In
the second round it was Hovhannisyan’s turn to go on the
attack. His aggressive style helped him to even the
score. By the sixth round it was obvious that this was
going to be a candidate for fight of the year. “Crazy A”
had developed a mouse under his right eye and his nose
was bloodied.
Nery’s face was swelling. In every round leading to the
tenth both fighters had connected with thundering head
shots. Finally in the tenth round Nery caught “Crazy A”
with a left hand that put him on the canvas. The tough
Armenian struggled to get to his feet more out of pure
exhaustion. “Crazy A” came out for the eleventh round
but he was on shaky legs. A left from Nery wobbled the
Armenian and referee Corona rightfully intervened to
stop the fight. Nery by knockout at 1:51 seconds of
round 11.
“I knew this was going to be a very difficult fight,
Azat is a very tough fighter,” said Luis Nery. “We gave
the fans an incredible show. I want the winner between
Naoya Inoue and Stephen Fulton. I feel ready for a world
championship.”
“We are disappointed in this outcome, but that’s
boxing,” said Azat Hovhannisyan. “There was a lot of
back-and-forth action, and we did all that we could.”
In the co-main event Super Middleweights engaged in a
head on battle that saw both fighters tagging each other
with a plethora of punches. Shane Mosley Jr. of Pomona,
CA (19-4, 10 KO’s) scored the more telling punches
connecting more often and with crisp combination.
Mexican Mario Lozano (33-11, 24 KO’s) to his credit held
his own but did just not have enough firepower to make
an impact on Mosley.
Mosley drove Lozano into the corner several times with
swift combinations, but Lozano smartly countered with a
right hand that always stopped Mosley's attack. In the
final round Lozano whispered in Mosley's ear, something
to the effect of, “let’s go for the knockout.” And as
the round began both fighters were swinging form the
heels. Both connected with several big shots but neither
would go down.
In the end Mosley earned a unanimous decision with
lopsided scores of 100-90, 99-91 and 99-91. However, the
fight was much closer than the scores indicates. Hats
off to both warriors.
“This fight showed me that I still have room to sharpen
up a bit," said Shane Mosley, Jr. "I only had three
weeks to prepare, so all things considered, I feel like
I got the job done. He’s fought with some tough guys so
I knew this was going to be a hard fight. I wanted to
get a big KO in front of the hometown crowd and make a
statement. I was willing to be a lot riskier. My dream
is still to become a world champion, and I’m going to do
it.”
In the battle of the flyweights, Rialto’s Ricardo
Sandoval (21-2, 16 KO’s) scored a brutal knockout win
over Nicaragua’s Gerson Ortiz. (17-7, 8 KO’s) The
fighters went toe to toe exchanging vicious body shots
until a left hook by Sandoval to the solar plexus of
Ortiz dropped in mute nostril agony. Referee Caiz
counted him out at ten and Sandoval picked up his 21st
win and 16th knockout. Sandoval looked sharp and is
ranked fifth in the world by Ring magazine. Tonight he
did not disappoint. We look forward to seeing him in the
future vying for a title.
“This fight proves that I am a top-level flyweight,"
said Ricardo Sandoval. "I am ready to take on bigger
names in my division, and I want the bigger fights. I
had watched a couple of his videos before, so I knew he
was a dirty fighter. I had told the referee about the
head butting so he was aware.”
In this Super Middleweight match up Rowdy Legend
Montgomery (9-4-1, 6 KO’s) out of Victorville, CA
outpointed San Ysidro’s Cristian Olivas (22-9, 19 KO’s)
garnering a unanimous decision. Montgomery used his jab
and a solid right hand to back up Olivas the entire
fight. Olivas could never get off and did not display
the punching power suggested by his 19 knockouts.
Montgomery’s footwork kept him out of harms way as he
slipped and dodged many of Olivas’ punches. The judges
scorecards read 79-73, 79-73, and 80-72 all for
Montgomery.
Hawaiian Super Featherweight and 2019 National Golden
Glove Champion Asa Stevens (4-0, 2 KO’s) dominated
journeyman, Jenn Gonzalez (9-17-1, 5 KO’s). Stevens
dropped Nicaraguan Gonzalez in the first round as a
result of a straight left hand. Stevens found a home
with his left and pummeled Gonzalez over and again.
Gonzalez could do nothing to avoid Stevens left hand.
After two quick rounds Gonzalez decided that he would
quit on his stool and did not answer the bell for the
fourth round. Stevens remains undefeated.
In the opening bout of the evening Ukrainian
heavyweight, Andril (Rampage) Novytski (1-0, 1 KO) made
his debut against Gabriel Costa (1-4). Novytski dropped
Costa in the first minute with a left right combination.
Costa made the ten count however it appeared as though
he didn’t want any part of this fight and went down a
second time from a soft right hand. Referee Jerry Cantu
stopped the fight at 1:22 of the first round giving
Novytski his debut win.
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