Mares stops Almanza in Five

From Downtown Los Angeles at LA Live, Golden Boy Promos put together another card in an attempt to bring boxing back to Los Angeles.

In the nights main event, the local favorite and upcoming star Abner Mares clashed with Felipe Almanza in a scheduled 10 rounder in the junior featherweight division. The first round was fairly uneventful with Abner giving chase and Felipe running the entire time. In the third round, Mares dropped him with an uppercut right on the button as Almanza slowed down for a slight second. The fight came to an end in the 5th round, when Abner finally trapped Almanza on the ropes and landed a variety of shots to the body and head. Jabs, hooks, and many power punches to the body, finally dropped Felipe and the ref called the fight at 2:23 in the 5th round. Abner Mares improves to 20-0 with 13KO’s while Almanza drops to 19-16-3.

In the first bout of the evening, Dion Savage of Las Vegas, by way of Flint, MI, kept his record clean as he dropped Danny Stainislavjevic of Los Angeles twice in the first round of a light heavy battle. The referee stopped the fight at 2:53 in the first. Savage goes to 7-0, with 5KO’s as Stainislavjevic drops to 8-18-4.

The second bout of the evening ended even faster than the first, at 1:08 in the first round. Anatolly Dudchenko, out of Ukraine defeated Harley Kilfian of Wisconsin with a short, straight right hand that dropped him. Kilfian could not recover and the ref waved the fight off. Dudchenko improved his cruiserweight record to 8-2 with 6KO’s while Kilfian dropped to 8-5.

The third fight was the first bout of the night to escape the first round. Undefeated local favorite Ronny Rios met Andres Ledesma of Miami, in a 6 round, welterweight bout. In the first two rounds, Rios showcased his power as he stalked Ledesma around the ring, landing powerful jabs and big right hands. The next few rounds featured more of the same. While Ledesma showed a ton of heart, he had nothing on his punches, therefore he couldn’t keep Rios from pressuring him. The fight ended when Rios landed a vicious body shot at 1:45 in the 5th round (by karen). Rios improves to 10-0 with 5KO’s while Ledesma drops to 15-17-1.

The next bout was a 4 rounder in the junior featherweight division. Two very talented, lightning fast fighters, Derrick Wilson (5-1-1, 2KO’s) and Adam Ochoa (2-1, 1KO) dazzled the crowd with their equal display of speed and accuracy. The first two rounds featured many big shots by both fighters, no one seeming to have any sort of edge. In the third round, Wilson seemed to take a slight edge, landing big power shots but Ochoa came back in the fourth, winning that final round in my opinion. On the scorecards, one judge had it 39-37, the other two both had it 38-38 , a majority draw.