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Thompson Boxing Promotions’ Locked ‘N Loaded Saw Saracho &
Zaina Battle To Majority Draw
By Barbara Pinnella
Photos: Chris Suchánek
This Friday night, Thompson boxing presented Locked ‘N
Loaded, at the DoubleTree Hotel in Ontario, CA. The main
event was for the WBO Latino Super Lightweight belt, and
was between Jesus Saracho (13-1-1, 11 KOs) and Tarik
Zaina (12-0-1, 8 KOs). This fight was scheduled for 10
rounds. Not many punches were thrown in the opener, as
it seemed to be more of a range-seeking mission, but
Saracho was already starting to show Zaina his
strengths.
In the second, the fighters charged at each other and
threw a lot of punches throughout the three minutes.
They sometimes got a bit wild in their quest,
particularly Zaina, but no harm, no foul. The third was
a lot of the same. Both men connected, but they also had
some awkward moments as well.
Saracho settled down a lot in the fourth, landing most
of the punches he threw, while at the same time avoiding
most of those thrown by Zaina. Jesus also began to find
the body a lot more, and doubling up on his punches as
well. The fifth was a good one for both men. Zaina would
throw those long arms out there and made quite a bit of
contact, and Saracho would stay in tight and land his
own shots.
Headed into the eighth, Saracho was staying strong, and
a lot of his punches were continuing to land. He was
much more controlled than his opponent, and had been
showing that throughout most of the fight. He applied a
lot of pressure in the ninth round.
The tenth and final round saw the jab of Saracho being
very effective, as it had been for most of the night. He
did take a hard shot from Tarik in this round, but
bounced back, continuing to be the aggressor.
With the number of knockouts between them, many of the
fans were waiting for that to happen. It was not to be,
and we went to the scorecards. When the scores were
revealed, the fighters must have been wishing they had
gotten that KO, as the cards showed the scores as 95-95
two times, and with one judge seeing it 96-94, making
this fight was a majority draw.
The co-main event had Nelson Oliva (7-0, 6 KOs) battling
with Miguel Angel Barajas (3-4, 2 KOs). These two
lightweight fighters were to fight for six rounds, but
it didn’t come close to that. A body shot dropped
Barajas in the first round. A few seconds later he was
hit and his knee touched the mat, calling for another
count. Instantly, another body shot put him down again,
and the fight was waved off at 2:25 seconds of the very
first round.
In a bout that was scheduled for six rounds in the
welterweight division, Jesus Gonzales (6-1-1, 2 KOs)
stood across the ring from Levy Josue Garcia Benitez
(3-0-1, 2 KOs). A lot of action from these two fighters
to start us off, but neither one really did much damage.
A bit of a sloppy second round, with head clashes and
some holding on the part of each man.
Hard to say who was actually scoring points in the
third. Still a bit sloppy, and then both men would rush
in and land, then step back and stalk each other. Points
were scored on both sides in the fourth, and this
appeared to be a close fight thus far. But the edge
looked to be with Benitez.
Fifth round much of the same. Who wants it more? We
moved into the sixth and final round. A lot of action
with many punches thrown throughout this round, with
both men trying to put the other on the canvas. Neither
could do so, and we went to the scorecards. The judges
saw the bout 60-54, 59-55, and 58-56, all for Benitez.
Levy remained undefeated, while Gonzales suffered his
first defeat.
Tayden Beltran (6-0-1, 4 KOs) faced Gerardo Alberto
Fuentes (2-8-1, 2 KOs). These were two super
lightweights scheduled to fight for four rounds. Beltran
demonstrated his accurate use of combinations in the
first, finding both the head and body of Fuentes. In the
second round, a well-placed body shot put Fuentes down,
but he managed to get up right near the end of the
count. A few seconds later, another hard punch to the
body put Gerardo down for good. The stoppage came at
1:29 of that second round.
Emiliano Moreno (6-0-1, 4 KOs) faced off against
Cristian Dominguez (11-6, 6 KOs). This bout was
scheduled for eight rounds in the super lightweight
division. A quick left hand put Dominguez down in the
first. Another left saw the ropes hold Cristian up for
the second recorded knockdown of the initial round. He
made it out of the round – barely.
The second round showed a lot of action, while the third
was quite a bit slower. The action picked back up in the
fourth, with Moreno taking control once again. Dominguez
landed some good leather as well, but Emiliano was
always the aggressor. We saw much of the same in the
fifth.
We had seen some back-and-forth action in the last
couple of rounds, and that continued into the sixth and
seventh. In the eighth and final the two men spent most
of the time fighting in close and peppering each other.
We went to the scorecards. Two of the judges saw the
fight 80-70, while the third one had it 79-71, all for
Moreno.
The fight that opened up the evening was between
welterweights Angel Beltran Villa (17-1, 10 KOs) and
Abraham Afful (12-5-1, 12 KOs). This fight was slated to
go eight rounds. There was no wait and see attitude in
the first round, as Beltran spent most of the three
minutes taking it to Afful, landing many hard blows. So
hard in fact, that the fight was waved off on advice of
the corner of Afful before the second round began.
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