By Michael Montero: Golden Boy Promotions continues to build a brand with their “LA Fight Club” series at the Belasco Theater in downtown Los Angeles. Friday night’s card featured three exciting bouts that were televised on “Estrella TV” and streamed online at RingTVLive.com.
In the main event, Michael Angelo Perez faced Mexican Martin Honorio in a ten round super lightweight bout. Perez, of Newark New Jersey, utilized some crafty footwork and counterpunching in the early going to set the pace of the fight. The fighters clashed heads several times and it wasn’t long before both were bleeding heavily; Honorio from the left side of his head and Perez from above the eye. The blood got the crowd going, which only emboldened the young fighters that much more. As the bout progressed into the middle rounds, both men had their moments doing good work, spattering the ring with red stains.
Perez threw the straighter punches, but Honorio was a tough customer who definitely came to win. However, the gash over his head continued to stream blood and on the advice of the ring doctor, the referee stopped the fight after the sixth round. The judges scored it 60-54 three times for Perez, which drew boos from the crowd because it felt like a very competitive fight. Perez improved to 24-1-2 (11KO) and Honorio fell to 33-10-1 (16KO).
In the co-main, Christian “Chimpa” Gonzalez had a quick night at the office, disposing of Oxnard based David Rodela in the opening round. Gonzalez, of Los Angeles, had the partisan crowd going crazy as he landed a hard right hand to Rodela’s chin, which dropped him. Rodela fell to 17-13-3 (7KO) and the LA kid improved to 13-0 (12KO).
The TV opener featured two undefeated prospects as Colombia native Oscar Negrete took on Tijuana native Neftali Campos in an eight round super bantamweight fight. This turned out to be a great learning lesson for the developing talent Negrete, who repeatedly scored on his very game opponent. You never know what you’re going to get with these fighters coming up from Mexico, and Campos proved to be legit. He showed nice defensive angles, and made Negrete work for every shot he landed. None the less, class showed as the rounds progressed, and Negrete stacked up rounds with his higher work rate and accurate offensive attack. All three judges scored it 80-72 for Negrete, who improved to 13-0 (5KO) while Campos lost for the first time as a pro, falling to 11-1 (9KO). The Colombian now calls Los Angeles home, and figures to be in line for a title shot soon.
In the un-televised portion of the card, all three California based fighters won. Welterweight Alexis Rocha won his pro debut via 2nd round TKO over Dominican Jordan Rosario (0-4, 0KO), Rafael Gramajo improved to 7-1-1 (2KO) with a decision victory over Sharon Carter (4-1, 2KO), and Ivan Delgado improved to 9-0-1 (2KO) with a decision win over Jesus Sandoval (5-9-3, 1KO), of Mexico.
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