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Mitchell Remains Undefeated,
But
Ituarte & Ramirez Steal The Show
By Barbara Pinnella
Photos: Marlene Marquez
The Thompson Boxing Promotions show, Locked ‘N Loaded,
took place on Friday night at the Doubletree Hotel in
Ontario, CA. Heavyweights took to the ring for the main
event as LaRon Mitchell (13-0, 13 KOs) faced off against
Epifanio Mendoza (42-23-1, 36 KOs). This fight was
scheduled for eight rounds.
There was very little action in the first round, as the
men spent most of the time just leaning into each other.
Not many punches were actually thrown. There was not a
lot of change in the second. Mendoza’s form of defense
was to just put his head under the chin of Mitchell.
Maybe he thought that would keep himself from getting
hit. It worked for this round, but was certainly not
scoring any points with judges or those in attendance.
The fight was over quickly when, in round three, a
left-handed body shot to the liver put Epifanio down and
out at :52 seconds. Mitchell remained undefeated, and
once again he got that all victory by knockout.
The co-main event saw super featherweight Erick Ituarte
(14-1-1, 2 KOs) taking on Daniel Ramirez (11-4, 5 KOs)
in a bout scheduled for eight rounds. We saw a great,
action-packed first round. A huge left hand by Ramirez
put Ituarte on the canvas. Daniel jumped all over him
when he got up at the eight, but the bell rang, letting
Erick get out of the round.
Ituarte came back in the second, landing a lot more of
his punches and not getting hit as much as he did in the
first. Ramirez got some in too, but forgetting the
knockdown in the first, this was a much closer round.
Perhaps tasting the canvas woke Erick up.
That last statement was a bit prophetic, as a big right
hand in the beginning of the third dropped Daniel. Then
he jumped up and went on the attack. We were seeing a
good, very active and competitive fight thus far. Both
men managed to stay on their feet in the fourth, but
that doesn’t mean that punches were not landing. They
were each trying to win, and putting on quite a show in
that quest.
Ramirez was outpunching Ituarte in the fifth. A quick,
snappy left hand dropped Erick for the second time in
the fight. But Ituarte picked up his pace in the sixth
and began connecting with his punches again. This had
been a back and forth battle between these two.
The seventh saw Erick trying to score as many points as
he could, as he had two knockdowns to make up for, with
only one against Ramirez. They both came out in the
eighth and final loaded for bear. We went to the
scorecards. It was a unanimous decision, with scores of
75-74, 76-73, 77-73, all for Ituarte. The fans were
pretty quiet after these were announced, presumably not
quite understanding some of those scores.
Manuel Mendez (10-1-2, 6 KOs) took on Ricardo Maldonado
(6-5-1) in a fight scheduled to go six rounds in the
junior welterweight division. About a minute into the
first round a quick right hand by Mendez dropped
Maldonado. Manuel went on the attack to try to finish
Ricardo off, but was unable to do so, as Maldonado made
it out of the round.
In the second, Mendez suffered a bad cut under his right
eye after an accidental head butt. After referee Raul
Caiz Sr. had the ring doctor take a look, the fight was
stopped at 2:10. Since the fight did not go three
rounds, it was declared a technical draw.
In a welterweight fight that was scheduled for four
rounds, Eridanni Leon (3-2, 1 KO) went up against
Rasheed Lawal (1-4-1). The first round was a rather
different one, as each man slipped and went down to a
knee, each at different times, and nobody really landed
anything of importance.
Leon landed some really solid right hands in the second
and it looked as if he would put Lawal down in an
instant. But Rasheed came back and got in some hard
shots of his own. Eridanni was hitting Lawal with
everything he had in the third, but the tough man from
Nigeria refused to go down.
Leon continued where he left off in the fourth and
final, and eventually referee Sharon Sands felt she had
seen Lawal take enough punishment and waved the fight
off at 1:31 of that last round.
Rudy Garcia (2-0) faced off against Raphael Rivera (2-9)
in a fight that was set for four rounds in the super
bantamweight division. Garcia had a strong first round,
landing both head and body shots with both hands
throughout the three minutes. Rivera got in a few, but
was more wild than accurate.
The second round sure seemed to last longer than the
allotted time, but both men were dishing out punishment.
Still, it was Rudy who continued to have the upper hand.
It was all Garcia in the third. He was landing hard
right hands to the body of Rivera, as well as head shots
by both hands. Raphael was looking tired and taking a
beating, but continued to try to fight back.
The final round was more of the same, with Garcia doing
most of the damage and just dominating from start to
finish. We went to the scorecards. Not surprisingly, all
three of the judges saw the fight the same, 40-36, all
for Garcia.
Even though this was a short fight card the fans seemed
to go home happy and were quite into some of the fights.
The best fight of the night had to be Ituarte and
Ramirez – action from start to finish.
Jose Roman (22-1-1, 15 KOs) was supposed to fight on
this card, but the untimely passing of his father, Jose
Roman Sr. prevented him from doing so. Our thoughts are
with Jose and his family at this difficult time.
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