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04/23/2005 Archived Entry: "Santa Cruz and Rincon TKO Opponents at Cicero!"
Santa Cruz and Rincon TKO Opponents at Cicero!
By Rita Figueroa at Ringside
Jose Santa Cruz
CICERO, ILLINOIS - Fighters Jose Santa Cruz and Francisco Rincon delighted the crowd as they won their bouts in their respective main and co-main fights of an action packed card.
The first fight was a Middleweight match between Chicago's Ottu Holifield and Montana's Ben Aragon. You could tell from the start that Aragon was just a straight ahead fighter, while Holifield looked much more relaxed and had the superior movement. Holifield countered at will making the game Aragon miss. This was he case for the enire 4 rounds. Had Holifield put the combinatins together, he may have stopped Aragon. Nonetheless, he made the victory look easy winning a 4 round unanimous decision.
The second fight of the night was a Super Welterweight rematch between Chicago's Trinidad Garcia and Minnesota's Joe Lynch. Lynch won a 4 round decision back in November. This fight was scheduled for 6 and would go the distance, with Lynch winning the bout more convincingly this time. They both traded at times with Lynch being the aggressor most of the fight. Both landed solid shots, but Lynch seemed to land the more effective shots through the fight. The judges agreed and scored the fight 60-54 for Lynch on all 3 score cards.
The Co Main event was a welterweight bout between Francisco Rincon of Texas and Mexico's Fabian Luque. This one was scheduled for 8 but would only go 2. Luque came out throwing very wide punches but the much stronger Rincon placed shots that almost landed at will. A few knockdowns in the first round could have easily ended the fight, but the game Luque made it to the bell. He would not be so lucky in the 2nd. Again Luque came out wide, and you knew it was only a matter of time before Rincon would once again land at will. The referee called a halt to the bout at 1.53 into the 2nd round - TKO victory for Rincon.
The main event of the night ended much the same as the co main event. It was a Lightweight bout between Mexico's Jose Santa Cruz and Uganda's Justin Juuko. Both fighters came out looking to establish the jab, bit it was clear thet Santa Cruz was the younger, more fresh fighter. After landing some solid right hands to the veteran Juuko - this bout was stopped at 2.24 of the 3rd round.
The shortest and most exciting fight of the night was a Bantanweight bout between fast rising star Francisco "El Nino Azteca" Rodriguez of Chicago and Florida's Kevin Hudgins. No feeling out for these two - they went right at it. Francisco came out the more aggressive of the 2 which may have led to him getting caught with a pretty good shot from Hudgins, but he showed he also has a chin as he stepped up the pressure and landed quite a few clean shots of his own. After Hudgins appeared to not have his legs under him, almost stumbling accross the ring, the referree called a halt to the bout. TKO victory for Rodriguez who now improves to 3-0 3TKO's. Although this one may have been stopped a bit too early - the outcome would have surely been the same.
All in all another great night of fights for Dominic Pesoli's 8 Count Productions!
Rita Figueroa (3-0-0, 1 KO), shown here with trainer Sam Colonna, fights at 140 lbs. for 8 Count Productions
Photo of Santa Cruz courtesy of www.8countproductions.com ; Photo of Rita Figueroa courtesy of Tom Glunz
