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Santillan & Torres Deliver Quick Victories
By Barbara Pinnella
Photos: Chris Suchánek
Tonight brought the curtain down for the year on another
Thompson Boxing Promotions event, this time Locked ‘N
Loaded, held at the Doubletree Hotel in Ontario,
California. In the main event welterweights were
featured, as Giovani “El Gallo do Oro” Santillan (25-0,
15 KOs) went up against Wilfrido “La Roca” Buelvas
(20-13, 14 KOs). This fight was scheduled for eight
rounds in the welterweight division.
Santillan put his left hand on display early on by
landing some solid shots to the head of Buelvas. In the
second round, Wilfrido was trying to make a statement
when a solid left by Giovani put him down. He was up at
the eight, but just a few seconds later a right / left
combination put Buelvas down and out at 2:31 of that
second round.
In the co-main event junior welterweights took to the
ring when Ruben Torres (11-0, 9 KOs) faced off against
Eduardo Leonel Rodriguez (8-2-1, 3 KOs). This bout was
to go a scheduled eight rounds. It went one. Torres was
on fire and in complete control from the beginning, and
a brutal right hand followed up by a left had referee
Wayne Hedgpeth jump in and stop the fight at 2:53 of the
opening round.
Roberto Meza (13-2-1, 6 KOs) battled with Alberto Torres
(11-3-3, 4 KOs) in a fight scheduled for eight rounds in
the featherweight division. It was an uneventful first
round with neither man really scoring or doing any
damage. Things picked up in the second, and Meza began
to turn up the heat. Torres landed some punches as well,
but it was Roberto who made the most of round two.
Meza was able to land quite a few solid punches to the
head of Torres in the third. Alberto really didn’t have
a lot of offense and had to hold on a couple of
occasions. In the fourth Torres had some good moments,
albeit a little wild, as he had been off and on during
the fight. Meza was the more controlled and skilled of
the two, and was able to land his jab often.
The fifth round was another back and forth one. There
was nothing special really going on, they were just
trading off as to who had the high points at the moment.
In the sixth Meza looked a bit frustrated as Alberto was
finally able to score with some hard shots to the head
of Roberto.
Meza suffered a cut over his left eye in the seventh
round. referee Raul Caiz, Jr. and the ring doctor look
at it, but the fight continued. Nothing was much
different in the eighth and final, and we went to the
scorecards. They read 78-74 twice for Meza, and a draw
at 76-76, giving the victory to Roberto.
Unbeaten featherweights were to go a scheduled six
rounds as Jose Sanchez (5-0, 4 KOs) stood across the
ring from Brandon Jimenez (5-1, 2 KOs). We saw a good
first round here, with Jimenez striking first and fast,
but Sanchez coming up with answers as he fired back.
The tables turned in the second, as it was all Sanchez.
He sent Jimenez from rope to rope, until referee
Hedgpeth had seen enough punishment given to Brandon and
waved the fight off at 1:55 of round two.
Opening up the night of boxing were Saul Bustos (11-0-1,
6 KOs), who was going up against Antonio Duarte (2-2) in
a fight scheduled for six rounds in the junior
middleweight division. In the opening round Bustos
showed of his very fast hands, but a couple of times
Duarte showed his power. It was much the same in round
two.
In the third the men fought in much closer and Antonio
was able to land several hard shots on Saul. But Bustos
was still able to land those combinations. That was all
we would see however, as fight was stopped after the
third round after the ringside doctor declared that
Duarte was unable to continue, giving the bout to Bustos,
and keeping his win streak alive.
This was an impressive return to the ring for Santillan
and it was good to see him back. Torres looked great as
well, so look for both of them to advance in 2020.
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