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03/17/2007 Archived Entry: "Mucho ‘March Madness’ as Martinez & Perez KO, Nevitt & Resto Outclass Opponents!"
Mucho ‘March Madness’ as Martinez & Perez KO, Nevitt & Resto Outclass Opponents!
By Juan C. Ayllon at ringside
Photos by Eddie Solis
Martinez (right) batters Humphrey at Cicero Stadium
CICERO, Ill.—The largely Latin crowd at Cicero Stadium roared. In the small boxing ring dwarfed by the throng, Mexican warrior Juan C. Martinez tore into taller African American Jason Humphrey like a frenzied pit bull terrier savaging a mongrel, chewing him up and spitting him out inside two rounds.
Charging behind hurtful, looping hooks, Martinez battered Humphrey about the ring in the first. However, Humphrey slowed the avalanche of blows with potent rights to the head.
Resuming the battering in the second, it wasn’t long before a Martinez left hook to the side dropped Humphrey four a five count. Humphrey rose. Martinez pounced. His back to the ropes, Humphrey covered and took a fearful beating. However, he kept his composure and guard up and fired back occasionally.
Just as Martinez appeared to be gassing—with Humphrey to exact payback—he picked up his work rate. A left hook to the chin turned Humphrey halfway around, dropping him face first to the mat. Referee Genaro Rodriguez waved it off immediately for a knockout at 2:59 into round three.
Hailing from San Luis Potosi, Mexico, Martinez, who weighed in at 132 lbs., rose to 6-4 and 4 KO’s, while Humphrey, from Ripley, Tennessee, weighed 130 lbs. and slipped to 4-4-3 KO’s.
Resto (right) on the attack against Valenzuela
A ripped and quicker Jeffrey Resto worked like a taxicab slashing through traffic from his native Bronx in rush hour, as he pitched a shutout against rugged and unrelenting Roberto Valenzuela over six rounds.
Resto opened fast in the first round with a crisp jab and straight right to Valenzuela’s head. He repeated this cycle. Valenzuela landed a left hook and later an uppercut. A right to the back of the head by Valenzuela landed as Resto turned from a punch. Resto jarred Valenzuela’s head with hard rights. Valenzuela, who sported a slight swelling under his right eye going in, already had a little swelling there.
Driven to the ropes, Resto snapped Valenzuela’s head back with a right uppercut in the second. Fleeter of foot, Resto raked Valenzuela with sharp rights and jabs.
Switching to a left handed stance, Resto continued to pepper with stiff jabs, right uppercuts, and straight lefts as Valenzuela sought to catch him in the fourth.
Resto (right) backs Valenzuela up with a right
Resuming his conventional stance, Resto upped the furor of his attack in the fifth with crisp lefts and rights. Valenzuela refused to fold and battered back with looping lefts and rights of his own.
A right hook staggered Valenzuela badly. Jumping forward, Resto’s body slammed into Valenzuela and both fell down.
Following a break, they resumed hostilities. Resto turned the whole of his body behind punishing rights and lefts. Yet, Valenzuela withstood the assault and slugged back, albeit a half step behind.
In the sixth and final round, Resto switched southpaw about a minute into the round as he chipped away. Switching back, Resto bounced stiff jabs and crackling rights to Valenzuela’s head and torso. Undaunted, Valenzuela pursued, alternatively covering, then pressing with looping rights and lefts.
Resto continued to pepper and batter, closing strongly over his unbending rival.
Judges scored the bout 59-54, 60-53 and 60-53 for a unanimous decision win for Jeffrey Resto (143 lbs.) who rose to 20-2, with13 KO’s. Valenzuela (142 lbs.), who hails from Aquaprieta, Sonora, Mexico, slipped to 38-30-2 with 34 KO’s.
Mike Nevitt exhales as he stalks Hammack
Popular Chicago light heavyweight Mike Nevitt (13-0, 5 KO’s) also out-sped and out-worked a rugged opponent. In this case, it was sturdy and game Shawn Hammack (12-4-2), who made the trip from St. Louis, Missouri.
In the first round, Nevitt dictated the tempo that would prove to be the pattern for the fight. There was no mystery as to why he was so sinewy and devoid of fat, as he expended great energy throwing faster shots—jabbing, crossing and hooking—ducking and circling. The stockier and shorter Hammack, who had some skills, but was a shade slower than Nevitt, pressed when he could and landed a handful of hard rights and lefts to Nevitt’s body.
Both fighters traded quick shots to the body on the inside in the second. Hammack just missed with a right to the head as Nevitt came in behind a flurry. A smacking left hook to the jaw caught Hammack’s attention.
In the third, Nevitt thumped Hammack’s side with a right, pumped the jab and outworked to edge in another spirited round with busy flurries, but little damage.
Nevitt knocked Hammack back with a stiff left early in round five. A right snapped Hammack’s head back. Nevitt continued to jab, hook and cross Hammack, while slipping and ducking most counters thrown back his way in the fifth.
The bout took on a more interesting tone, as Nevitt seemed to slow down just a notch in the sixth and seventh rounds.
Hammack bounced a rare right off Nevitt’s head, but moments later, Nevitt returned the favor with a little more steam on it in the sixth.
Hammack (left) and Nevitt trade blows
Hammack crashed home another right to the head. And another. Nevitt slugged back fast and furiously, slamming hard rights to Hammack’s head. A purplish mouse grew under Hammack’s right eye.
In the seventh, Hammack landed yet another pair of rights to Nevitt’s head. Hammack punished Nevitt’s sides with hooks. The busier and more effective of the two, Nevitt snapped his head back with a left hook at rounds end.
In the eighth and final round, they slugged at close quarters. Wrestling on the inside, Nevitt cracked an uppercut to the head. A right by Nevitt snapped Hammock’s head back. Hammock swung and missed. They grappled. Nevitt peppered, while a tiring Hammack held. Nevitt caromed chopping lefts and rights off Hammack’s head, then ducked under the return fire at the bell.
Judges scored the bout 79-73 twice and 80-72 for a unanimous decision victory for Mike Nevitt.
Referee Genaro Rodriguez (center) looks on as Perez smashes a right to Vaughan's head
Chicago’s resident tiger at welterweight, Luciano Perez, showcased some new stripes in using head movement, a higher guard, and footwork in his arsenal, as he dispatched rugged, but outgunned John Vaughan inside three rounds.
Vaughan, who’d gone the distance with talented middleweight Shay Mobley several years ago, looked to be an interesting test for Perez. However, he was fighting the proud Luciano in his adopted hometown.
In round one, Perez drilled Vaughan with a right to the head and appeared to hurt him with a right to the chest. For several moments, Perez boxed like a ring cutie, using more head movement than usual, dipping, slipping punches and moving side to side. No matter. Vaughan caught Perez with a right to the head. Fireworks erupted. A lead right bounced Vaughan hard on the seat of his trunks. Rising, he received a standing eight count.
...And down goes Vaughan!
Perez pursued, winging hooks to the body. Suddenly, Vaughan took a knee. Resuming, Vaughan appeared to harbor lingering effects of the knockdown, as a hard jab jarred Vaughan.
In the third, a right uppercut stood Vaughan up straight. Vaughan fired back with hard rights. Again, both slugged away, throwing their full weight behind hurtful lefts and rights. A left hook capped off a concussive Perez flurry and dropped Vaughan along the ropes.
Resuming, the two teed off in earnest. Perez jarred Vaughan with a couple rights to the jaw, the second knocking his mouthpiece to the canvas. Swarming, Perez dug a vicious right hook to ribs of Vaughan. He continued raking Vaughan over and under, while Vaughan did what little he could to fend off this marauding tiger. It wasn’t enough.
Even though Vaughan was fighting back in spots, Referee Genaro Rodriguez jumped in and waved off the bout at 2:05 into the third.
On the surface, the stoppage appeared a little premature. Later, Vaughan would grouse, saying that he was defending himself and actually coming on. However, moments after the stoppage, Vaughan wore the relieved look of a guest rescued from the Amur Tiger’s habitat at Chicago’s Lincoln Park Zoo.
Michoacan, Mexico native Luciano Perez (148 lbs.), who resides in Chicago, improved to 15-5-1 and 13 knockouts, while John Vaughan (148 lbs.) of Topeka, Kansas slipped to 6-16 and three knockouts.
Martinez (left) crashes a left to Sanders' jaw
Hailing from Mexico City, Leobardo Martinez (133.5 lbs., 8-9-0, 4 KO’s) knocked out Fort Wayne, Indiana's Reggie Sanders (131.5 lbs., 12-38-4, 2 KO’s) in traditional Mexican style, flattening him with a left hook to the body in four rounds.
Martinez started fast, slugging up and down with both fists and driving Sanders back throughout the first. Sanders caught his attention first with a right, then a left. Martinez maintained the busier and generally more effective work rate.
Outworked for the better part of round two, Sanders dug several hard shots to the abdomen and made it a closer round with sharp, straight lefts and rights.
Martinez charged out hard again in the third and pinning Sanders on the ropes, unleashed a two-fisted assault for roughly a minute. A right later snapped Sanders’ head back. Both traded, but Martinez kept inside the longer armed Sander’s reach and scored in bunches.
Resuming his wilting attack in the fourth, Martinez immediately drove Sanders back to the ropes. There, he jarred Sanders’ head with rights and lefts. Again, Sanders covered. Flailing away to head and body, suddenly Martinez ripped a left hook to Sanders’ side. Agony creased Sanders’ face as he crumpled to his knees and pitched forward. Referee Genaro Rodriguez counted him out at 1:14 into the fourth round.
And, with that, Dominic Pesoli and his Eight Count Productions punched up and served their own version of ‘March Madness’ with a Latin—and a touch of Irish—twist, to the delight of this Chicagoland crowd.
