By Nick Bellafatto, Ringside
To open the action this Saturday at the Home Depot Center on the undercard of Nonito Donaire versus Toshiaki Nishioka, undefeated super featherweight Saul Rodriguez (6-0-1, 5 KO’s) of Riverside, California would clash heads during the second round of a scheduled four-rounder with opponent Cesar Garcia (6-12-2, 1 KO) of Ensenada, Mexico. As a result, the referee in consultation with the ringside physician would waive the bout off in between rounds 2 and 3 due to Garcia not being able to continue, rendering matters a technical draw.
In the second bout of the evening after four rounds of action at super middleweight, Ron Ellis (4-0, 3 KO’s) of Miami, Florida did more in each of the frames, landing the harder shots to garner a unanimous decision verdict by scores of 40-36 all the way around. In the process Ellis would maintain his unblemished record while sending counterpart Katrell Straus (2-3, 1 KO) of Denver, Colorado to certain defeat.
1:40 seconds of the first round is all it took for Chicago native and undefeated light heavyweight Trevor McCumby, (7-0, 7 KO’s) to dispatch his overmatched and out of shape opponent Eliseo Durazo of Agua Prieta, Mexico (4-4, 1 KO) in this scheduled four round attraction. Durazo who would taste the canvass from a left hook just seconds into the bout, would then permanently succumb moments later from a crashing right hand which would prompt the referee to call an immediate halt.
Action from the opening bell in bout four would see Oxnard, California lightweight Javier Garcia (8-2-2, 7 KO’s) drop Garden Grove, California opponent Jose Roman (14-0-1, 11 KO’s) with a big left hook after a fierce toe to toe first round. Resuming action a close quarters, Roman would turn the tables in round 2, dropping Garcia with a big right. Round 3 would witness Roman put in the better work to edge Garcia yet again, causing a cut with a solid right hand.
That cut, which in no way appeared significant enough to have the action halted, nevertheless would prompt a premature ending at the conclusion of three complete rounds culminating in another technical draw. In essence, it looked as though Team Garcia had bailed out, perhaps depriving a surging Roman of the potential victory.
Over the course of seven rounds, undefeated super lightweight Jose Benavidez Jr. (17-0, 13 KO’s) of Phoenix, Arizona looked to be on cruise control over opponent Pavel Miranda (19-8-1, 10 KO’s) of Tijuana, Mexico, controlling range and distance with a solid left jab which would set up an assortment of other intermittent blows.
However, in the eighth and final round Miranda would make it interesting, waking a complacent crowd by sending Benavidez Jr. to the canvass with a solid left hook, a blow ironically not called a knockdown. Hanging on for life, Miranda would run out of time in the scheduled eight round feature so that Benavidez would earn a unanimous decision victory by scores of 79-73 all the way around.
Featherweight Evgeny Gradovich (13-0, 7 KO’s), known as the “Mexican Russian” fighting out of Oxnard, California, would face an experienced journeyman level fighter in Jose Angel Beranza (35-24-2, 27 KO’s) of Mexico City, Mexico, who would extend the evidently transplanted Russian fighter with constant movement so as to avoid solid contact for the most part.
As the bout progressed however, blows by each man began to find their destination, although the ever pressing Gradovich would land a bit more prevalently in each of the rounds to garner the unanimous decision verdict by scores of 79-73 twice and 80-72 in this eight-round contest.
