| |
|
|
Lester Martinez Wins WBC Interim World
Super Middleweight Championship With Unanimous Decision Over
Immanuwel Aleem
Guatemalan slugger Lester Martinez won a historic 12-round
unanimous decision over fellow contender Immanuwel Aleem to
win the WBC Interim Super Middleweight Championship and
become his home country’s first super middleweight world
champion.
Fighting in the 12-round main event of ProBoxTV’s broadcast
from the NOS Event Center in San Bernardino, Martinez
(20-0-1, 16 KOs) of Guatemala City, Guatemala, used
effective and powerful uppercuts and a superior work rate to
keep the upper hand over Aleem (22-4-3, 14 KOs) throughout
while absorbing return fire with his typical toughness.
To his credit, Aleem came on strong in the later rounds,
especially the eleventh and never gave up trying to win. The
wave of history, however, was too strong to withstand.
The scores were 120-108, 118-110 and 119-109, all for new
champion Martinez.
“I feel good,” said a happy Martinez, post-fight. “I want to
thank my parents and family. I want to thank my team: Bomac,
Saul, all my team and my promoter Garry Jonas. I want to
thank all of you, Guatemala. We now have a world champion! I
love Guatemala and all of my fans. I love y’all. Viva
Guatemala!
“All respect to Aleem,” the new champion continued. “He’s a
warrior and we knew how good he was and his experience, but
we were ready for that and more. We went in cautious because
we knew what we had in front of us. But to hear the
Guatemalan fans cheering gave us the will to go on.”
“He had more consistency in the little things and I didn’t
capitalize, so shout out to Lester Martinez,” said a
disappointed but sportsmanlike Aleem. “It wasn’t the
performance I was looking for, but I’m going back to the
drawing board to continue my hunt for a world title.”
In a strange turn of events, undefeated Joshua Kevin Anton
(13-0, 12 KOs) of Palmdale, California, picked up the WBC
Continental Americas Super Welterweight Championship with a
surprise stoppage of former top contender Kudratillo “The
Punisher” Abdukakhorov (22-6, 14 KOs) of Andijan,
Uzbekistan.
Although a warrior in spirit with plenty of pitched battles
in his history, Abdukakhorov began clutching his head in
pain at the conclusion of an uncompetitive round one and
indicated he was injured and unable to fight. Referee David
Solivan accepted Abdukakhorov’s requested retirement
officially at 3:00 of round one, per California rules.
Undefeated local fan favorite Albert “Chop Chop” Gonzalez
(17-0, 10 KOs) of Riverside, California, had little problem
knocking out Owings Mill, Maryland’s Brandon “The Hitter”
Chambers (12-5-1, 5 KOs) at 1:47 of the opening round. The
23-year-old featherweight prospect Gonzalez moved in quickly
and landed a powerful right hand behind the ear that left
Chambers on the mat for an extended period.
LA’s undefeated Sam Contreras (5-0, 2 KOs) knocked out
overmatched Texan Cesar “El Matrix” Cantu (3-5-2, 1 KO) of
Weslaco, Texas. Contreras wisely used his advantages in
height and reach and varied his attack to the head and body.
The normally durable Cantu had no answers to the educated
attack. Referee David Solivan decided the determined but
outgunned Cantu didn’t belong in the ring with a prospect at
Contreras’ level at 1:09 of round two.
19-year-old Robert Garcia Academy bantamweight prospect Luis
Coria (5-0, 5 KOs) of Moreno Valley, California, scored an
impressive TKO stoppage of 41-fight veteran Lito Naruto
Dante (21-16-4, 12 KOs) of Sierra Bullones, Bohol,
Philippines. Normally a durable road warrior, Dante grew
tired of absorbing the hammering fists of the young puncher
Coria and informed his corner he had had enough at the
conclusion of round two.
Super Welterweight Kevin “The Badass” Ventura (12-1, 8 KOs)
of Omaha fought his way to a six-round unanimous decision
over Riverside, California’s Aaron Watson (2-2-2, 1 KO).
Watson started out well throwing powerful right hands, but
Ventura came on with every passing round. The in-ring action
was closer than the scores of 60-54 by all three judges.
To open the night’s action, former three-time national
amateur champion Jocelyn Camarillo (6-0, 1 KO) of Coachella
California, made quick work of Isis Sio (1-3) of North
Dakota, knocking her out at 1:18 of the opening round. The
21-year-old Camarillo trapped Sio against the ropes and
unloaded an extended salvo that left her light flyweight
opponent Sio out cold for several tense minutes. Sio was
taken from the ring on a stretcher.
|
|
|
