Torres, Cabral Grind Out Wins in Contrasting Battles
Sometimes you never know who you’re going to get in the boxing ring with and even the best planned events take a detour. For Duke City’s Josh Torres that was the case Saturday night. Fighting in the main event at “The Legacy Continues IV” at the Embassy Suites in Albuquerque —Torres had a last minute replacement fighter to contend with. Torres’s original opponent Alejandro Frias (21-13-2) backed out due to a shoulder injury. In his place came an unorthodox opponent—Jose Valenzuela (4-28-4).
Valenzuela of Puebla, Mexico started round 1 of the scheduled 8-round bout with wild haymakers with intense pressure putting Torres—who had trained for Frias—in an awkward, precarious position early.
It took a few rounds for Torres to adjust to the unorthodox style of Valenzuela and a technical battle ensued with Torres using one-twos in his formula to deal with Valenzuela. Valenzuela, for his part, proved he had the knowledge and experience to go the distance though his wild punches at times seemed to be more aimed for entertaining the crowd. In the end Torres won a unanimous decision with all 3 judges scoring the bout 80-72 to claim the UBO Welterweight Championship.
The co-main event featuring Cristian ‘El Puma’ Cabral (11-2, 5KO, 2draws) was a sizzler and crowd pleaser. Cabral, fighting for the UBO Intercontinental title, fought Martin Sollano of Amarillo, TX (5-0, 2 KO). Sollano came out swinging, with the intent of staying undefeated, using body shots, jabs and combos to bring the fight to Cabral. Cabral used his hooks and body shots to counter the aggressive Sollano. Sollano caught Cabral in the 4th round with a sneaky hook that dropped him. Cabral got up, recovered within the round, and never looked back the rest of the night — using the knockdown as a wake-up call!
Cabral went to the body and found paydirt, giving him the unanimous decision (76-75, 77-74, 77-74) though he did absorb and shake off a strong low blow in the 7th.
A 6-round middleweight matchup between Clinton Chavez (9-1, 6 KO) and Wesley Vanderlinden (4-3, 4KO) both from Albuquerque, saw Chavez continue his career resurgence. Vanderlinden started out dominating the first round by throwing combinations and being the aggressor, but he landed many low, leading to two point deductions. The low blows and body shots had Chavez on defense early in the fight but as the fight progressed Chavez began landing combinations and got busier with his hands, rallying well in the 4th and 6th rounds to secure the unanimous win (57-55, 59-53, 58-54).
Chavez said of the fight, “It was tough—it’s all a learning experience—you have to take something from it and don’t make the same mistake twice.”
Earlier in the night German Ponce of Albuquerque (1-0) defeated David Bedai Quiros (debut) of Mexico.
Ponce came out strong, especially in the first round, throwing plenty of heavy combinations. Quiros for his part showed good defense and composure while landing some sneaky rights and body shots. In the end Ponce’s aggressive combo punching was the difference in the unanimous decision (40-35, 40-36, 40-36).
To start off the night Shaun Lee Henson defeated southpaw Jovan Sauceda by TKO at 2:33 in the second round in a 4 round middleweight bout. Though Sauceda had better ring generalship in the first round, Henson’s power showed up in that second round as he landed uppercuts, hooks and a body shot that ended the fight.
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