SAN ANTONIO – When your main event is a joke, the undercard better be filled with punch-lines. Fortunately for Golden Boy Promotions and its local partner, Leija-Battah Promotions, the undercard, and the local talent that staffed it, had lots of punches in both straight and bent lines, redeeming a main event between an undefeated Texan and a man unfit for a swing bout.
Saturday at Our Lady of the Lake Gym, on a gorgeous campus in the western part of this city’s downtown area, Texas junior welterweight Omar Figueroa (20-0-1, 16 KOs), of Weslaco, leaped out his corner and obliterated frightened Floridian Henry Aurad (14-7-1, 11 KOs), dropping him once in the first half minute and stopping him decisively with an overhand right at 0:47 of round 1.
Aurad stood in the opponent corner, blue, before the match commenced, looking unprepared, spacey and nervous. If bystanders noticed this, you can bet Figueroa did. The Texan raced out his corner and assaulted Aurad, who appeared not to have any plan at all for fighting a man with 15 knockouts in 19 fights. Quickly enough, Aurad was on the canvas, rising on unconvinced legs and escaping a few seconds longer.
Figueroa’s right hand closed all exits a moment later, though, and the main event was through before it could earnestly begin.
JERMALL CHARLO VS. GILBERT VENEGAS
Houston junior middleweight Jermall Charlo (12-0, 8 KOs) made short work of fellow Texan Gilbert Venegas (12-9-3, 8 KOs), of Eagle Pass, stopping the overmatched lad at 0:24 of round 3, in the evening’s co-main event.
From the opening bell the disparity in height between the lanky Charlo and his opponent was dramatic; the fighters appeared to be from different sports more than different weight classes. Venegas did what he was able, applying pressure enough to land a left hook to the body and a right hand in each round, but against Charlo he hadn’t a chance.
Charlo did everything better than Venegas, using his enormous height and reach advantage properly, outjabbing Venegas through the fight’s full six minutes and landing crisp right hands. Charlo’s power has occasionally been questioned by aficionados, but against an opponent he dwarfed, there was little doubt what Charlo’s right cross possessed for a man at whom he could punch downwards, and who was there to be hit with it.
The two in Charlo’s 1-2 was ferocious against Venegas, dropping him for the fabled 10 1/2 count at the open of round 3.
ERROL SPENCE VS. LUIS TORRES
2012 U.S. Olympian “The Truth” Errol Spence (4-0, 3 KOs), of Dallas, decisioned local junior middleweight Luis Torres (4-3-3, 1 KO) by unanimous scores of 40-36, 40-36 and 40-36, in Saturday’s antepenultimate fight. While Spence was never imperiled by the San Antonian, he was touched more often by right hands than was expected.
Spence has a number of areas that will need steady improvement if he is to fulfill the high expectations that greet Olympians’ arrivals in the professional ranks. Spence often pushes-off with the jab more than he thrusts it, punching to get away rather than initiate attack. He throws the left cross from his southpaw stance in an almost premeditated way, appearing to put the punch behind the jab in obedience to a plan more than a moment. And finally, as evidenced by Torres being felled not once despite absorbing numerous power shots, Spence may not hit hard as hoped.
Nevertheless, Spence did what needed doing Saturday, outboxing Torres for every instant of their four rounds together.
JAIRO CASTANEDA VS. CHRISTIAN SANTIBANEZ
The night’s best match was its swing bout before the main event, when two San Antonio junior welterweights, Jairo Castaneda (2-0, 1 KO) and Christian Santibanez (0-1), fought each other like neighbors, or brothers, and relented not once in their 12 minutes of combat that Castaneda won by unanimous scores of 39-36, 39-36 and 38-37.
The otherwise even bout was decided, in largest part, by a counter right cross with which Castaneda felled Santibanez in round 2, clipping Santibanez on the way in and marking a 10-8 round that proved helpful. Santibanez, though, showing much composure in his professional debut, fought Castaneda better after being knocked down than he’d fought him before it happened. Neither man relented, and both fought with the familiarity that convinces a man the person opposite him is not his superior.
This match, along with others that featured local fighters like Emanuel Ledezma, Felipe Castaneda, Joseph Rodriguez and Kenton Sippio-Cook, filled Our Lady of the Lake University Gym with a capacity and energetic crowd. Leija-Battah Promotions, in its first year of work, has shown an inventiveness and insider knowledge every promotional startup claims but few actually possess. Its largest test will come next month, when it presents Saul Alvarez vs. Austin Trout at Alamodome.
