Antonio "Cañitas" Lozada Jr, new jr. welterweight WBC FECARBOX champion
With their debut fight card which included fourteen bouts and eighty scheduled rounds, Baja Boxing brought professional boxing back to the border city of Tijuana, MX, with an action packed night that included three championship fights and a parade of local prospects fighting in front of their home town. Over 2,500 enthusiastic fight fans where on hand at the Palenque of Morelos Park located in the heart of the city to witness jr. welterweight Antonio “Cañitas” Lozada Jr. (22-0, 19KO) stay undefeated and anesthetize his third victim in a row when he stopped Colombia’s Henry “Mamba” Aurad (12-3-1, 9KO) to capture the vacant WBC FECARBOX title broadcast nationally in Mexico by Televisa.
Lozada Jr. used the first round to study his south American opponent since he had not seen film of Aurad and only knew his slightly shorter opponent from pictures. “Cañitas” pawed with his jab trying to find his range while Aurad easily slipped the punches and began with a soaring over hand right that found its mark with no trouble. As the round ended, Lozada Jr. was able to land a hard right upper cut and both fighters glared at each other as the bell sounded the end of the first. The Tijuana fighter continued establishing his jab in the second while Aurad continued boxing from the outside. The pace slowed even more in the third as they began to have a jab contest with each other although neither fighter landing one with authority. Lozada Jr. at times attacked with hard power punches but the slick boxing Aurad was able to slip them.
Lozada Jr. Vs. Aurad action
Lozada Jr. scored a scorching straight right hand to mid way through the fourth that hurt Aurad and sent him down to the canvas. The end was near as Aurad beat the count on very wobbly legs and Lozada Jr. was able to trap him against the ropes and score with another hard right but this time to the body that made Aurad double over while Lozada Jr. kept attacking sending him to the canvas once again. referee Gelasio Perez did not bother starting the count and waived the contest off.
Official time was 2:10 of the fourth round.
In the semi main event, former world title challenger Ronal “Indio” Barrera (27-6-2, 17KO) proved to be to much for Tijuana’s Arturo “Fuerte” Badillo (17-1, 15KO) handing the local flyweight his first professional loss and going back home to Barranquilla, Colombia, with the WBC FECARBOX title.
"Fuerte" Badillo scores early
The action began with the first bell as Badillo attacked the more experienced Barrera with a rabid attack of power punches trying to catch his opponent off guard. Not only did Barrera not seem concerned with Badillo’s strategy but welcomed it as he began to trade bombs with the Tijuana fighter and took control by the end of the round with measured pressure. By the second, the rhythm slowed considerably as Barrera, who switched from orthodox to southpaw at will, continued to stalk his opponent around the ring while “Fuerte” boxed himself out of danger. Near the end of the round Barrera was able to trap Badillo against the ropes but the local favorite was able to swing his way out of trouble despite his nose beginning to bleed.
Badillo began to look some what fatigued in the third as Barrera was the one throwing punches while “Fuerte” was content in trying to slip the attack and counter with one punch at a time. “Indio” caught Badillo with a hard right hand mid way through the fourth as Badillo looked spent. Badillo’s inactivity continued for the majority of the fifth until the end when he tried to steal the round by trading leather with Barrera.
Barrera applies the pressure
“Fuerte” finally picked up the pace in the sixth as he began to put punches together in spurts as he trapped Barrera against the ropes and hurt the south American with a left hook to the chin. Although Badillo seemed to win the sixth round, Barrera won the seventh by landing hard over hand right almost at will as he kept pressing the worse for wear Badillo.
By the ninth, Badillo looked as he was running on fumes and Barrera took advantage near the end of the round to land a devastating straight right hand to the body of Badillo which prompted the Tijuana fighter to drop his guard as Barrera landed a barrage of punches prompting the referee to stop onslaught.
The time of the stoppage was 2:26 of the ninth round.
In the third title bout of the night, David “Morita” De La Mora (19-0, 14KO) looked devastating as he battered hard hitting Jovanny “Bambino” Soto (27-11-1, 22KO) for seven rounds and earn a TKO victory as well as the vacant WBC FECARBOX bantamweight title.
David De La Mora, new WBC FERCARBOX bantamweight champion
De La Mora, who is trained by Romulo Quirarte, showed off his combinations in the first round as he hurt the game Soto with one that was punctuated with a hard left hook. In the second and third round, De La Mora of Tijuana, MX, continued to prevent Soto from establishing a game plan with his work rate. The accurate punching “Morita” kept scoring with two and three punches combinations that landed mostly to the head of Soto. De La Mora cut Sinaloa’s Soto over the right eye with a hard right hand to begin the fourth and began to work the affected area with out mercy.
As the doctor checked the cut in between rounds, Soto knew that he was in danger of the bout being stopped so he came out with guns blazing in the fifth round and hurt De La Mora with two hard hooks to the head. De La Mora had no other choice but to clinch to slow Soto down. The tide turned in the sixth for Soto as he began to pressure De La Mora around the ring. De La Mora was able to box Soto and score to the eye causing the cut to get deeper and bleed profusely.
“Morita” welcomed Soto to the seventh round with hard right hands to the cut which prompted the referee to call over the ringside doctor who after inspecting the gash put an end to the fight at the 2:41 mark of the seventh round.
Other Results:
"CheChe" Lopez scoring a knockout
light welterweight Juan Pablo “CheChe” Lopez (16-0, 15KO) of Tijuana, MX, stayed undefeated and earned yet another stoppage as he knocked out Navajoa, MX’s Daniel Yocupicio (14-12-2, 1KO) with a wrecking right hand at the 2:59 mark of the third round.
Tijuana’s Alejandro “Mantequitas” Rubio (9-0-1, 5KO) and Francisco Piña (3-2-2, 1KO) of nearby Ensenada, MX, fought to an ugly four round super featherweight draw as Rubio tried to box the mauling Piña but only got a cut over each other in the process from head butts.
Jr. flyweight Luis “Gallito” Ceja (12-1-2, 10KO) of Tlalnepantla, MX, dropped Ricardo “Rocky” Armenta (6-3, 1KO) of Navajoa, MX, first with a left hook and then with a right hand to leave referee Jose Cobian with no option to halt the action at the 1:36 mark of the second round.
Tijuana’s Humberto Tapia (15-12-1, 10KO) stopped Manuel Cruz (6-10, 1KO) of Navajoa, MX in the second round of a scheduled jr. welterweight four.
Bantamweight Francisco “Lobito” Navarro (3-0-2, 3KO) of Tijuana, MX, stopped Agua Prieta, MX’s Jorge Guerrero (1-2, 1KO) in the third round.
Rogelio Castañeda (26-15-3, 9KO) of Tijuana, MX, was awarded a unanimous decision over Edgar Quiroz (7-5-1, 5KO) of Ciudad Obregon, MX, in a four round jr, welterweight contest. The scores were not announced.
Super welterweight Octavio “Tayo” Castro (14-4, 9KO) of Empalme, MX, needed only 2:45 of the first round to stop Casas Grandes, MX’s Heriberto Gutierrez (9-3, 3KO).
After am accidental clash of heads opened a cut on both their brows, super featherweights Carlos “Artista” Novoa (0-0-1) of Tijuana, MX, and Alejandro Garcia (0-1-1) also of Tijuana, were awarded a technical draw.
Lightweight Reyes “Cholo” Velazquez (9-0-1, 7KO) of Tijuana, MX, stayed undefeated as he knocked out Ignacio Mandragon (2-8) o Ensenada, MX, in the first round.
In an all Tijuana middleweight contest, Jovan “Vaquero” Muñoz (9-1, 3KO) was awarded a split decision over Guillermo “Durango” Garcia (6-3, 1KO) over four rounds.
