On Friday night Thompson Boxing Promotions offered up their first show of the year, “Path to Glory”, held at the Doubletree Hotel in Ontario, CA. They played to a full house for this year’s opener and the card was a really good one.

Christopher “Marvelous” Martin (26-2-3, 8 KOs) took on Jose Angel Beranza (35-26-2, 27 KOs) for the vacant WBC USNBC super bantamweight title that was scheduled for eight rounds. Both men came out strong in the opener, but they were a little wild as well. In the second, Martin got in some good shots, but at this early stage he was not dominating the fight. Beranza was just active and elusive enough to not let him do a lot of damage.

In the third round Martin would get some good punches in, only to have Beranza push him back. It did seem as if Christopher was scoring the most points, but Jose was not letting him run the whole show. Beranza dominated most of the fourth round. He was laying punches on Martin and was coming forward and on the attack for most of the round. The last 10 seconds or so Christopher came on, but the majority of the round belonged to Jose.

Beranza was dropped in the early seconds of the fifth round. After that knockdown, Jose really came alive and made each punch count. Most of the shots he threw found their target.

Beranza was even stronger in the sixth, as he just peppered Martin. Jose was chasing Christopher around the ring and the leather he was throwing was definitely connecting. It appeared he was trying to even the score with a knockdown of his own. In the seventh round, Martin was able to get in some shots, but Beranza was still trying to stay in control.

The men pulled out all the stops in the eighth and final round. Both landed their punches and tried to score those points. There was no quit in these two fighters and the action was from start to finish. We had to go to the scorecards. The judges saw the fight 78-73, and 76-75 twice, for the winner by unanimous decision, Christopher Martin.

The fans did not agree with this decision, and the boos were loud and insistent. Had it not been for the knockdown the results would have been different. Kudos to Beranza, who gave it his all after he was sent to the canvas, and came back to try to win the fight, and in the eyes of most, did so. Jose Beranza is one tough man.
 

In a welterweight bout scheduled for eight rounds, Artemio “King” Reyes (19-2, 15 KOs) faced off against Rodolfo “Bam Bam” Armenta (12-10-1, 9 KOs). Reyes got in a quick shot in the opening seconds that sent Armenta leaning on the ropes, but no knockdown was called, even though the ropes seemed to hold him up.

At 1:47 of the second round however, Reyes put Armenta down and out, taking the fight out of the judges’ hands for his 19th victory. An early victory for the popular man from Colton.
 

Juan Reyes (9-1-1, 1 KO) stood across the ring from Hugo Ramos (3-12-2, 1 KO) in a featherweight fight scheduled for six rounds. Ramos came out like a bull for the first 30 seconds or so, and then Reyes started to take over. Toward the end of the round both men were connecting with their punches.

Another fast-paced round was seen in the second, as both men got in some heavy leather, particularly at the end of the round. Ramos had some very good seconds near the middle of the third when he nailed Reyes with some very good body shots as well as punches to the head. But Juan wasn’t going to take that laying down, and came right back to take the dominance away from Hugo.

The fourth was another one with a lot of action. Just when it seemed as if Reyes was going to put Ramos down and out Hugo would rally back and stay in the game. Reyes suffered a cut over the left eye in the fifth, and it was definitely bothering him. Ramos was all over him in this round, and the crowd was getting behind him as well, starting “Hugo” chants.

It took all an exhausted Ramos could do to stay on his feet in the final round, but he managed to do so. The scorecards showed 59-55 twice and 60-53 for a unanimous decision for Reyes. And while Hugo did not win, he gave Juan a tougher fight than the Reyes camp probably expected and earned the fans’ respect.
 

Middleweights took to the ring in a fight that was scheduled for six rounds, as Alex Theran (11-0, 8 KOs) faced Michael Balasi (10-2, 7 KOs). There was no feeling out period for the two fighters in the first, as both of them came out swinging and connecting. We saw an active first round. In the second Theran controlled all the action from start to finish.

The third saw Balasi throwing more punches, but Theran was still the more accurate, and Alex’s speed was also a problem for Michael. A combination of several very fast right hands put Balasi down in the fourth. He got up after eight, but when Theran started to land at will again referee Wayne Hedgepeth stopped the fight at 2:22 of that fourth round. Theran remained undefeated.
 

Joshua Conley (5-0, 4 KOs) faced Juan Carlos Rojas (4-5, 4 KOs) in a middleweight fight scheduled for four rounds. Even though there were no losses for Conley, both men had gotten their victories by way of knockout, so anything could have happened here. An uneventful first round that saw a lot of wild punching by Rojas.

In round two a sweeping left and two right hands rocked Rojas but he was able to get out of the round. In the third, while Juan Carlos was connecting with many of his punches they failed to do much damage. In contrast, Joshua was landing fewer punches with far more power.

In the fourth and final it was still all Conley. We went to the scorecards. One judge saw the bout 39-37 for Rojas, while the other two scored it 39-37 for Conley, who was the winner by split decision. To Rojas’ credit, he took some heavy hits and managed to last the four rounds, but how he got the decision on the one card remains a mystery.
 

Super featherweights Xavier Montelongo (2-1-1) took on Pedro Toledo (2-0-1) in a fight that was scheduled for four rounds. Toledo came out and took it to Montelongo from the opening bell, getting in hard left hands to both the body and the head. Xavier found it necessary to hold on at times. Montelongo came out tougher in the second round, but Pedro connected with some good overhand rights to take over the round.

Toledo still looked good in the third, getting in the more solid punches. Midway through the round Montelongo looked as if he didn’t want to really engage Pedro anymore. In the final round, the hardest punches were connecting for both fighters. We went to the scorecards. We had a unanimous decision, 39-37, all for Pedro Toledo.

This was an excellent way to open up the 2013 season for Thompson. The fights were good ones, and most of the fighters who lost showed a lot of heart and grit during their battles. Check out the next fight in Ontario, which will be on April 26.


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