By: Austin Killeen – Ringside – April 24, 2016     Photos by Alan Curry    (Click on thumbnails for larger images.)  

The bar was set very high for the third meeting between Shon Mondragon and Aaron Perez on Saturday. Their first two meetings resulted in close exciting fights won by Mondragon. Were expectations unrealistic that they could do it again? One only has to go back to May 2, 1915 when Floyd Mayweather faced Manny Pacquiao to realize that hype and reality don’t always travel the same road. On that evening Floyd and Manny put a nation of excited fight fans to sleep; ZZZZZ. Shon and Aaron delivered and their bout was justifiably voted the “Fight of the Night.” This was a night when the Marcus Ewing/Sergio Lujan and Adam Marquez/Andres Borrego bouts, were also strong contenders for the best fight on the card.

 

When the bell sounded the start of the main event, the counter punching Perez exploded from his corner and landed a left right to the body of the Colorado invader. It was obvious that the “Duke City” pugilist had decided that counter punching wasn’t the way he planned to punch his ticket to the nationals in Utah. But Mondragon hadn’t come by his reputation by standing around and quickly displayed an excellent left to the head and powerful left hooks to the body. I felt the opening stanza belonged to Perez, due to his volume punching.

The second round was a big one for Perez, as he seemed to be on a mission. He was throwing punches in bunches while Mondragon responded with solid punches of his own, but one blow at a time. Perez scored with a big uppercut to the head and powerful left hook, also to the head. Suddenly, the referee stopped the action to administer a standing 8-count to Mondragon. I hate standing 8-counts, but the ref is only doing what is clearly stated in the rule book. This is why Olympic boxing is shown on television at three o’clock in the morning. Olympic boxing has become another way of saying b-o-r-i-n-g. The final portion of the round Mondragon had some success, but it was an impressive three minutes for the hometown boxer that aided in the decision.

 

The Colorado fighter is clearly tough, but entering the final round I failed to see how he had beaten Perez twice. He must have read my mind, because the “Land of Enchantment” was about to become a nightmare for Perez. In the two previous rounds Mondragon landed clean punches but failed to follow up. But this round he was the one throwing the combinations. He trapped Perez on the ropes and administrated some nasty offensive blows to the head and body of his rival. This resulted in Perez being administered a standing 8-count. I’ve seen many of Perez’s fights over the past four years, including rounds that he lost. He clearly lost round three, and, at times it appeared Mondragon could have been arrested for committing a felony.

 

Waiting for the decision I couldn’t help but think that only one of the two best P4P fighters in the tournament would be going on to Utah. However, due to Perez’s dominance in the first two round I agreed with the decision. The verdict went to Perez 4-1, as five judges scored the bouts on this day. There were a lot of if’s in this contest; what if there had been a fourth round, did Perez take his foot of the pedal, did his two previous wins affect Mondragon’s thinking. All I know is that I saw a terrific bout between two outstanding young men.

 

 

The semi-final at 152 pounds was another exciting contest between the experienced Andres Borrego of Colorado and inexperienced but tough Adam Marquez. Borrego stole the first round behind right hook and straight left combinations against his southpaw rival. In the second round Marquez settled down and started landing some solid punches. He was able to trap Borrego on the ropes and unload a nice combination. But Borrego had a nice spin move and was able to escape to the center of the ring. Jabs are ineffective when southpaws fight orthodox boxers and the seasoned Borrego realized this.

In the final round Borrego displayed some clever moves, including a solid right uppercut. Once again when the determined Marquez trapped him on the ropes, he minimized the damage with a clever spin move. Borrego has been to the nationals before and it showed. The only surprise to me was the closeness of the voting, the judges were split, favoring Borrego by a 3-2 margin. I felt the experience of Borrego was obvious for anyone to see and he should make some noise in the finals. Marquez was participating in only his ninth bout and made his rival work hard the entire fight. With a year’s additional experience I feel he could be in contention for a championship next year.

The fifth bout was a battle of left jabs. Shawn McCalman of Colorado was the better judge of distance against the taller Aiseah Achessah. He would move inside score and retreat to a safe distance. Achessah did better in the second round but McCalman was still in control of the bout. The inexperienced Achessah had his best round of the match in the third, utilizing his advantage in height and reach. The round was close and the judges might have been impressed by his effort. McCalman was awarded the verdict by a 4-1 margin, but he’ll need more than a jab if he hopes to win at the next level.

 

In the forth both 201+ Leonid Grachev of Colorado faced 201 Lorenzo Benavidez in a show bout. Both boxers were unopposed and already knew they were headed to Utah. Grachev stands 6’ 5 ½” while Benavidez measures 5’ 6”. If you’re as old as me, you might remember the cartoon called Mutt and Jeff, That’s what Grachev and Benavidez reminded me of in the ring. Grachev utilized his enormous reach advantage to keep Benavidez on the outside for the entire three rounds. The decision was just a formality.

 

 

The third match was another exciting hookup at 141 pounds between Marcus Ewing of Albuquerque and southpaw Sergio Lujan. Lujan proved to have the heavier hands but he made one critical mistake; carrying his right hand low. Instead of using a hit and run tactic, Ewing immediately stepped inside scoring with left hooks followed by overhand rights. Lujan landed some heavy left hooks of his own when he was able to get inside.

In the second round Ewing started mixing his left hooks to the head and body, while the harder hitting Lujan was firing overhand lefts to his rival’s head. Lujan was scoring but paying too big a price. Now Ewing was landing overhand rights. Ewing had a strong final round adding good use of distance to minimize damage while scoring with an assortment of punches to the head and body. If Lujan had made the simple adjustment of carrying his right higher, the fight might have had a different look. Ewing took the decision by a 4-1 margin and might make some noise at the nationals.

In the evenings second bout at 132 pounds, southpaw Efren Villalobos of Colorado out worked Jaime Aguilera to capture a unanimous decision. In the opening round Villalobos was the aggressor behind some nice combinations. Aguilera was waiting too long to respond. In round two Villalobos added a bob-n-weave to his attack, scoring to the head and body of Aguilera. The New Mexico fighter started firing back but only threw one punch at a time and failed to match his opponent’s output. Villalobos had a big third round behind volume punching. Aguilera landed some solid punches but never followed up his advantage.

 

In the opening bout, 114 pound Zachariah Jacquez of New Mexico faced 108 pound Salaam Gonzales in a show bout. Both young men were unopposed and already headed to the nationals. Jacquez captured the opening round behind a nice left hook and solid defense. Gonzales was the quicker boxer and had some good moments in the final thirty seconds. In the second round Gonzalez took over behind solid combinations while Jacquez was throwing single punches. The final round was a repeat of the second. Although Jacquez landed some clean punches he was restrained in his movements against the more aggressive Gonzales.

This was a good afternoon of boxing, but I’m alarmed that there were only five contested championship bouts. New Mexico has to figure out why participation has been going down the past few years and become proactive in recruiting more participants. I felt the judging was fair and there were no bad decisions. For those in attendance there were some exciting contests and our regional team should enjoy some success at Salt Lake City, Utah from May 16th through the 21st.