Jayson Velez wins the crowd at LA Fight Club

By Boxing News - 06/05/2015 - Comments

By Michael Montero: Another actin-packed “LA Fight Night” card had the fans entertained throughout, as the top three bouts were aired live on Fox Sports 1 and Fox Deportes from the Belasco Theater in downtown Los Angeles.

In the TV opener, Los Angeles native Christian “Chimpa” Gonzalez went up against Darryl Hayes, of Houston. This was a lightweight fight scheduled for six rounds. Gonzalez came out with his trademark aggressive style, pounding away with punches from all angels and buzzing his opponent several times. Hayes was in survival mode early, and was docked a point in the second round for excessive holding. The partisan crowd booed his holding and running tactics throughout, especially when a second point was docked in the final round for pulling down on his opponent’s head. After six one-sided rounds, the judges turned in unanimous scores of 59-53 and 60-52 for Gonzalez, who improves to 10-0 (9KO). Chimpa still has gaping holes in his defense and needs to use his jab more consistently, but there is plenty of potential in this exciting prospect. Hayes falls to 3-5 (1KO).

In an eight round super featherweight contest, Bronx native Emmanuel Gonzalez took on another LA bred fighter, Carlos Morales. This bout started very tactical in the early going. Morales was slightly more aggressive, scoring with occasional straight right hands. Gonzalez tried to stay cute defensively and burst with quick counter punches, but most of them were missing. This was becoming a stereotypical east coast style versus west coast style fight, with Morales using aggression and hard punching and Gonzalez attempting to use craft and defense. It wasn’t the easiest fight to score, but it seemed that the New Yorker was simply fighting too cute. Meanwhile the Angelino was only slightly out landing his opponent, but there appeared to be more substance in his work. The judges scored it 80-72 78-74 and 77-75 for Morales, who improves to 9-1-3 (3KO), while Gonzalez drops to 14-2 (7KO). The 80-72 score was atrocious and that judge needs a lesson in how to properly score a fight, but the right man won.

In the main event, Puerto Rican Jayson Velez went up against Mexican Daniel Ramirez in a ten round super featherweight bout. The first round was quiet, but in the second a flush left hook dropped Ramirez. This seemed to only wake him up as he made it to his feet and stormed back with a vengeance. The Mexico – Puerto Rico rivalry was in full effect now and the crowd loved it, erupting any time the Mexican fighter landed. There wasn’t much moving, holding or lying on the ropes in this one; both men stood in the center of the ring and traded. Through the middle rounds Velez seemed to be piling up the points with his sharper punching, scoring with pulverizing shots to the body. The Puerto Rican was much more accurate with his shots, even though Ramirez was just as aggressive. Into the later rounds Velez still looked fresh and even began walking his opponent down. Ramirez was visibly tired and marked up, but he never stopped punching. After ten entertaining rounds the judges scored it 99-90 and 98-91 twice for the Puerto Rican, who won over the partisan crowd with his flashy style.

Velez, who many feel was robbed in a split draw with former titlist Evgeny Gradovich last year, improves to 23-0-1 (16KO) and looks to be in line for another title shot soon. Ramirez drops to 11-3 (5KO).

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