By Michael Montero: In the main event of Friday night’s “LA Fight Club” card from Golden Boy Promotions, undefeated Mexican Diego De la Hoya went up against fellow countryman Arturo Badillo in a scheduled eight round featherweight bout.
De La Hoya has been one of the stables of the series, fighting at the Belasco Theater in downtown Los Angeles for the fourth time in less than a year. Badillo looked to play spoiler, making the trip up to LA from his native Tijuana.
De La Hoya looked sharp from the opening bell, landing left hooks and right uppercuts seemingly at will. It was target practice for the most part, but Badillo hung tough and landed some occasional looping right hands of his own. De La Hoya showed some nice offensive diversity throughout and appeared to have an improved defense as well. As the fight approached the middle rounds, Badillo’s face was reddened and swollen, but he never stopped punching back. However early in the fourth round De La Hoya landed a beautiful left hook to the body as Badillo backed up, immediately crumbling to the canvas in excruciating pain. It was the short of liver shot boxing fans have seen time and time again – as soon as it lands, you know the fight is over.
De La Hoya remains undefeated and improved to 14-0 (8KO) while Badillo drops to 20-10 (19KO). It was a perfect crescendo to what had been an entertaining card featuring prospects from the Golden Boy stable, aired live on Estrella TV (Spanish language network) and streamed live online at “Ring TV”. The sold old crowd at Belasco Theater was lively throughout. Golden Boy Promotions is really building something with these cards, and their Ring TV outlet appears to be an innovative success in the making.
Other results on the card:
– Los Angeles based Carlos “the solution” Morales improved to 13-1-3 (6KO) with a unanimous decision over Mexican Omar Tienda (14-3, 8KO) in a ten round super featherweight bout.
– LA prospect Nick Arce improved to 7-0 (6KO) with a unanimous decision over Luis Lizarraga Jr (5-8-1, 12KO), of Mexico, in a six round super featherweight bout.
– Mexican Oscar Duarte improved to 4-0-1 (2KO) with a unanimous decision over Archie Weah (1-5), of Georgia, in a four round junior welterweight bout.
– Las Vegas prospect Francisco Esparza improved to 3-0 with a unanimous decision over Mexican Antonio Martinez (3-6, 3KO) in a four round super featherweight bout.
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