By: Ken Hissner
At the Rabobank Theater in Bakersville, CA, PBC promotion over FS-1, it was the return of Victor “Vicious” Ortiz after 15 months of inactivity.
Photo Credit: Premier Boxing Champions
Former WBC World Welterweight champion southpaw Victor “Vicious” Ortiz, 32-6-2 (25), of Ventura, CA, stopped Saul Corral, 25-10 (16), of Sonora, MEX, at 1:26 of the fourth round.
In the opening round halfway through Ortiz caught Corral with a left cross to the head getting the attention of Corral. Ortiz ended the round with bad intentions rocking Corral at the bell. In the second round it was a war with both throwing bombs as Ortiz got in the harder punches. It was an all action packed round though Corral was warned twice for holding by referee Jack Reiss. In the third round Ortiz came out strong continuing to throw power punches backing up Corral. Referee Rees took away a point from Corral after four warnings. In the fourth round Ortiz went right after Corral landing a flurry of punches dropping Corral with a left hand. He got up and referee Reiss unwisely allowed it to continue with Ortiz jumping all over Corral before Referee Reiss finally stopped it.
In the co-feature Super welterweight No. 4 IBF contender Justin “The Chosen One” DeLoach, 17-2 (9), of Augusta, GA, was stopped by technical knockout at the end of the fifth round by Jamaican Nathaniel “No Problem” Gallimore, 19-1-1 (16), of Chicago, IL, in a scheduled 10.
In the opening round both boxers showed good skills with plenty of action while DeLoach was the more active of the two but got caught by a left hook on the chin and went down. Referee Zachary Young administered the 8 count. DeLoach was up as the bell sounded. In the second round DeLoach seemed to have a clear head landing a right to the head and a double left hook to the body of Gallimore. With a minute left in the round Gallimore landed a right and left to the chin of DeLoach dropping him for a second time. Just prior to the bell it was DeLoach who stunned Gallimore with a right hand to the chin backing him into the ropes. In the third round DeLoach came out firing with Gallimore motioning to keep firing as he countered DeLoach. In an obvious bad blood match-up both were talking and fighting with DeLoach controlling the round. This was caused by DeLoach talking about fighting the No. 1 contender though having to fight Gallimore first.
In the fourth round once again LaRoach came out bombing Gallimore who pounded his own chest coming forward taking punches showing little respect for LaRoach’s power. Gallimore landed a hard right uppercut to the chin of LaRoach and followed with a right causing blood from the nose of LaRoach. In the fifth round Gallimore landed a right to the head followed by a double left hook to the body of LaRoach. Gallimore landed a left uppercut followed by a right uppercut both to the chin of LaRoach. A right hand to the chin by Gallimore to the chin of LaRoach had the latter out on his feet. Going back to the corner with no stool there LaRoach went to sit down and almost fell through the ropes. The ring physician came in and called a halt to the contest.
Olympic lightweight Carlos Balderas, of Santa Maria, CA, 2-0 (2), knocked out Eder Fajardo, 3-4 (2), of ?,MEX, at 0:36 of the first round of a scheduled 6.
In the opening round Fajardo quickly turns to southpaw and back to orthodox. Balderas landed a pair of left hooks to the head followed by a left hook to the liver dropping Fajardo for the count by referee Marcos Rosales?
Featherweight Paul “Ziggy” Romero, 7-1-1 (1), Phoenix, AZ, lost by majority decision to Adam Lopez, 4-0 (3), of Glendale, CA, in 6.
In the opening round Romero moved with a countering jab while Lopez chased landing with a jab and an occasional right. In the second round Lopez chased and landed a double left hook to the body of Romero. A solid jab and a right hand by Lopez to the chin of Romero rocked him. Lopez managed to move out of trouble until the round ended. In the third round Romero became more active with his punches while it was Lopez using a double jab. Romero is countering with a good right hand to the head of Lopez. Romero turned southpaw the last 10 seconds as Romero was attempting to go to the head with little success.
In the fourth round Lopez went right after Romero with right hooks to the body from the southpaw stance. Lopez finally got Romero into a slugging match knowing he is the stronger puncher of the two. Romero was able to get his share of punches in but looked to tire. In the fifth round Lopez landed a double left hook to the side of Romero’s body. In the final minute of the round Lopez started carrying his hands low showing some fatigue but still landing the harder punches. In the sixth and final round a big right hand from Lopez on the chin of Romero stunned him. Romero countered well but didn’t have the power to keep Lopez off of him. It was an action final round. The referee was Marcos Rosales.
Judge’s scores were 57-57, 58-56 twice as did this writer.