The Citizens Business Bank Arena in Ontario, California was the venue for HBO’s
Boxing After Dark. The main event for this exciting night of boxing was a scheduled 12-round Heavyweight match-up between Cristobal “The Nightmare” Arreola (28-2, 25 KO’s) and Tomasz Adamek (41-1, 27 KO’s). Even before the fight began there was a rivalry going on, as the Mexican fans were on one side of the ring for Arreola, and the Polish supporters for Adamek were on the other. They took great delight in trying to shout each other down. Every time one of the two fighters was shown on the big screen, the boos and cheers began. Actually, the very vocal crowd was quite fun!

Adamek, a former Light Heavyweight and Cruiserweight Champion, was by far the smaller man in this fight, weighing more than 30 pounds less than his opponent. But don’t let that fool you, this was an outstanding Heavyweight battle.

In the first round both fighters played it a bit safe at first perhaps, then each of them started to attack a bit. In round two, Arreola got in some good shots, with Adamek answering back with leather of his own. Adamek was quick; there is no doubt about it. But in the next couple of rounds it was obvious that Cris was the aggressor. Tomasz kept coming back, but Arreola was tougher. Even though he took Adamek got in some big, hard right hands, Cris continued his attack.

Round five found Adamek landing a couple of good right hands. For a time it looked as if he wanted it more, then the Arreola attack came back. What effort from these two big guys with the sixth round continuing to show power and effort from both. There was a bit of a counterbalance between Adamek’s speed and Arreola’s strength.

The tide began to turn in round seven. Adamek started to jump in and out quicker now, which allowed him to avoid most of the punches that Arreola was throwing in his direction. The pace slowed down for the next two rounds. There was as much walking around as throwing punches.

Arreola’s corner must have gotten on his case, because in round 10, he really came out swinging, going for the kill, and it looked as if that might happen. But Adamek managed to rebound and save himself to fight another round. Arreola appeared to hurt his hand in one of the exchanges during this round, but he later said that he had hurt it back in the fifth round.

It was also in these later rounds that you could see an attitude change in Arreola. He really began to look frustrated with Adamek, and how the fight was going in general. In fact, later in the press conference the only compliment he would bestow on Adamek was to say he has a big heart.

The twelfth and final round had a bit of everything; some dancing, clutching and hitting, but with most of the punches coming from Adamek this time. And in the end, it was the quickness of Adamek, coupled with well-placed punches that gave the nod to Tomasz.

Later, Adamek explained his fight plan. “He is a tough guy. I couldn’t stand there and be too close to him. But I went the twelve rounds, and I win.”

In response to Arreola’s complaint that Adamek wouldn’t fight him and just ran, he replied, “If you fight twelve tough rounds with someone like Cris Arreola you cannot go full speed ahead for twelve rounds. So it is impossible for me to fight all twelve rounds at the same speed. Again, I couldn’t just stand there and get the win, he’s a strong guy. I had to use my head.”

The scoring was bit surprising. We saw one judge score it 114-114, OK, that’s alright. Another judge saw it 115-113 for Adamek, still alright, I believe. But the third judge scored the fight 117-111 and give the majority decision to Adamek.

Arreola had something to say about those scores as well. “I hate losing! Especially the way I lost. I don’t know what the hell that judge was looking at! Other than that, I came out and gave my heart, and I hope boxing fans saw what they wanted to see.”

Now, I’m not saying that the overall decision was the wrong one, but I have to agree with Cris on that. I’m just not sure about the six-point difference either. That said, Adamek fought a great fight, on this night deserved the victory.
 

The other fight that was televised on HBO was the one between Alfredo “Perro” Angulo (18-1, 15 KO’s) and Joel Julio (35-4, 31 KO’s). It was scheduled for 12 rounds in the Junior Middleweight division, and was for the Interim WBO Light Middleweight Title.

There was quite an impressive entrance by Angulo, as his own band played him to the ring, and a dog helped lead the charge. I saw the dog in the back and can’t believe that I didn’t put two and two together. Hello! Dog, “Perro”. Never connected the dots. Oh well, despite my lack of thought process I did find his entrance interesting.

The first few rounds showed great exchanges, with Julio getting the nod. The third round was really fast paced with a lot of punches thrown, as was the fourth.. Each man got in some effective shots. Many of Julio’s were blocked, but there were those that got through solidly, as the cut over Angulo’s eye proved. Still, Alfredo’s right hand also hit its target.

By the time the fifth came, it was obvious that Angulo had found his rhythm and was going to fight his customary pressure-packed fight. He would not give Joel a chance to breath as he pursued him at every turn. Both men got in hard left hands near the end of the round.

At the halfway point it was clear that this is one hell of a fight. Julio stays right with Angulo, and these men have thrown so many punches each round one can’t help but wonder how long they can keep up the pace. Alfredo, with his attacking style, gets hit a lot, but never gives his opponent any time to rest. Joel keeps firing as well.

Rounds eight and nine were carbon copies of the previous one. These two made good dance partners as each man continued to display his skills. It was in this round however, that Julio also suffered a cut over right eye.

Round 10 was when both men finally slowed down some. They had kept up a torrid pace throughout, and it made sense that at some point the gas tanks would start to run out.

In the eleventh round Angulo's stalking style finally paid off. After a left hand thrown by Julio missed, Alfredo came right over the top with a huge right hand. Down went Joel, and at 1:39 of round 11 Perro added another KO to his resume. This was a great fight that might have rated co-main event status.

Later promoter Gary Shaw stated that he wanted to keep Angulo on the West Coast, and that he would fight for HBO again before the end of the year.

There were some other good fights on the undercard that did not make the television. In an eight round Junior Featherweight contest, the undefeated Rico Ramos (16-0, 9 KO’s) kept that streak alive when he defeated Reynaldo Lopez (30-8-3, 21 KO’s). Lopez was down in both the second and the seventh rounds. Ramos was much more the aggressor, and won the unanimous decision 80-70, 79-71, 78-72. A great showing here by Rico.

In Heavyweight action, Alvaro Morales (4-7-5) suffered another loss, this time to Nate James (3-0, 1 KO). The fight did go the scheduled four rounds, with very little action other than the final round. James looked to be a lot more fit than his opponent. The scores were 39-37 for Morales, 39-37 for James, and the last score was not announced. All that was said was that there was a split decision in favor of James.

More Heavyweight fighters saw Natu Vasinia (4-0, 3 KO’s) go against Geovanni Sarran (0-1) in his pro debut. The fight was scheduled for four rounds. As was the case with James in the previously mentioned fight, Vasinia looked to be in much better shape here. In round three Sarran looked totally done, and in fact pretty much quite fighting at the beginning of the last round. An accidental head butt stopped the fight at .24 seconds of the last round. Vasinia won by technical decision with scores of 40-36 all around.

Chris Avalos (16-0) remained undefeated when he beat John Alberto Molina (28-13-3, 19 KO’s) in a scheduled 10 round Bantamweight fight. It is always fun to watch these Bantamweights go at it. They usually don’t slow down much. At the end of the first round both men were trying to end the fight right there, and that continued in the second round. Molina has a habit of dropping his head and body really low during exchanges, but this odd style didn’t do him any good. Molina quit on his stool and did not come out for round three. Winner, Avalos by KO.

Marquise Bruce (0-0-1) fought to a draw in his professional debut against Raul Rodriguez (2-4-1, 1 KO) in a four round Junior Middleweight contest. Raul slipped that was not ruled a knockdown in, I believe, the fourth. Bruce was a real tiger in his debut; a quick, tough, and hard to hit fighter. While the crowd was still quite light, those present were into this fight. The final scores were 40-36, 38-38, 38-38, a majority draw.

I missed the Lightweight fight between John Molina, Jr. (20-1, 16 KO’s) and Jose Antonio Izquierdo (17-6-1, 14 KO’s), but I do know that it did not got the distance. Izquierdo was dropped twice in the second round, and the referee stopped the fight at 2:55 of that second round.

In all, a great main event with Arreola and Adamek, preceded by a strong fight by Angulo and Julio. A good undercard as well. Congratulations to all of the winners of the night.


Be safe and God Bless,
Viva La Raza,
Barb.