By: William Holmes
The heavyweight division was featured tonight on Golden Boy Live on Fox Sports 1. The Fantasy Springs Casino in Indio, California hosted tonight’s card.
The opening bout of the night was between 2012 US Olympian Dominic Breazeale (9-0) and Nagy Aguilera (19-7). Breazeale, to his credit, was taking on a very tough veteran in only the tenth fight of his professional career.
Breazeale was three inches taller than Aguilera and he looked even taller in the ring. He started by trying to find the range with his jab, and Aguilera attacked Breazeale’s body effectively. Breazeale’s jab was starting to land by the end of the first, and it picked up in efficiency by the second round.
Aguilera continued his body attack in the second round and was making the fight entertaining, but Breazeale finished the second round strongly with thudding right hand and had Aguilera covering up at the end of the round. Breazeale carried that momentum into the third round and continued to back Aguilera up and punish him. The referee appeared to consider stepping in to stop the bout.
Aguilera came out aggressively in the fourth round, but Breazeale’s punches were doing more damage than Aguilera. They traded heavy shots in the fourth round, but it was Aguilera who wound up hurt from the exchange.
Aguilera’s granite chin kept him on his feet for the remainder of the bout, but by the fifth round his face was badly bruised and he was falling far behind on the scorecards.
Aguilera provided Breazeale with a tough test, but Breazeale passed with scores of 80-72, 79-73, and 79-73. Breazeale landed 248 punches to Aguilera’s 99.
The next bout of the night was between Gerald Washington (11-0) and Skip Scott (16-1). They were touted by the broadcast team as two upcoming prospects, but both boxers were over the age of thirty.
Washington, a former football player for USC, looked to be in tremendous shape. Scott circled away from Washington in the first round, and the exchanges were sloppy and ugly. At one point Scott pushed Washington to the ground. Neither fighter landed any punch of significance in the first round.
The end came in the second round when Scott went to one knee from a body shot, but he was hit from another body shot by Washington while he was taking a knee that the referee did not see. Despite the obvious foul, the fight was waived off.
Gerald Washington overcame a sloppy first round to win by TKO at 1:40 of the second round.
The next bout of the night was between Oscar De La Hoya’s cousin, Diego De La Hoya (3-0) and Jaxel Marrero (1-1-1) in the featherweight division.
De La Hoya is only nineteen years old, but he looked like an experienced veteran inside the ring. The first punch that De La Hoya landed, an overhand right, knocked Marrero down and caught him by surprise. From then on, Marrero fought to survive and did not offer much of an offensive attack.
De La Hoya was going for the stoppage, but Marrero did not present many opportunities for De La Hoya as he was back pedaling for most of the fight. In the fifth round De La Hoya knocked out Marrero’s mouthpiece twice and had his head snapping back from some vicious shots.
Marrero surprisingly was able to remain on his feet in the sixth despite taking some heavy shots. But he was clearly outclassed by De La Hoya. De La Hoya won on all three cards with scores of 60-54.
The main event was between Luis “King Kong” Ortiz (20-0) and the forty two year old former title contender Monte Barrett (35-10-2).
Ortiz is another “prospect” over the age of thirty, but Barrett was brought in here to be a name opponent for the undefeated Ortiz.
Ortiz connected with a solid short right hook and a straight left that left Barrett squinting in the end of the first round. Ortiz wobbled again in the second round with a crisp left cross.
Barrett’s luck did not improve in the third round as he was stunned again when he walked into a straight left hand. A mouse was developing under his right eye at this point. In the fourth round a big left hand by Ortiz sent Barrett down to one knee and grasping at his nose.
The referee immediately stopped the bout when Barrett took a knee and Barrett did not complain. Ortiz remains undefeated with a TKO at 0:38 of the fourth round.
