Knockouts Rain in Montebello, Cali.

By Tarrah Zael

Photos by Al Applerose

Boxing fans gathered locally to Montebello, California and witnessed rising boxing stars try their luck at being known for their hard work and talent on St. Patrick’s Day. It was an action- packed night as Tom Loeffler’s 360 promotions partnered with UFC Fight pass for the Hollywood Fight Night series at the Quiet Cannon Country Club Thursday night.

Main Event

Cem Kilic (16-1) needed less than two rounds to knock out Tony Hernandez (6-13-2) and continue on his trek toward super middleweight contention.

Though Hernandez was skilled defensively, he was unable to out-maneuver Kilic who was determined to score a knockout and simply bored in with damaging blows despite all of the Kansas fighter’s efforts.

Kilic scored knock downs in the first and second round. A right cross from Kilic ended the fight at 2:51 of the second round.

In a co-main event, it was Irish Callum Walsh scoring an even faster knockout win in less than a minute.

“That’s how I see every fight going. First round knockouts”, says Walsh (2-0, 2 KO), a southpaw Irish native who trains out of Wild Card Boxing Gym under the direction of Freddie Roach and Marvin Somodio, knocked out his Mexican opponent Gael Ibarra (5-7, 4-6 KO) after 33 seconds in the first round. A straight left dropped Ibarra to the canvas, leaving him stunned and wobbly. Referee Eddie Hernandez did not allow Walsh to continue damaging his opponent. Walsh is one of the many fighters on the fight card Thursday night who trains out of Hollywood, California at the Wild Card Gym.

Other bouts

The first UFC Fight pass fight of the night featured a six-round featherweight bout and ended in a unanimous decision win for Boyle Height’s own Omar Cande Trinidad (7-0-1, 5 KO) against Ivan Varela (5-4, 3 KO) of Lindsay, California. The first round finished after a straight left cross on the eye of Varela sent him bleeding back to his corner. In the continuing rounds, Trinidad laid into his opponent with his power and followed him around the ring. He walked him down and punished him, Trinidad did not ease up on the pressure. All three judges scored the bout 59-55 for Trinidad to win the unanimous decision over his opponent.

Middleweight Los Angeles native Eric Priest (7-0, 5 KO) battered his opponent David Lopez (4-2) of Pomona, CA, giving him no chance to counter. Priest pressed his opponent onto the ropes and unloaded straight hard punches. A powerful right visibly threw Lopez’ head backwards forcing the referee to interfere and stop the fight at 19 seconds. Priest retains his undefeated record with the KO win over his opponent. Priest trains at Wild Card Boxing Club in Los Angeles, he is fighter to keep an eye out for in the boxing world.

A well experienced Mexican- light heavyweight fighter Victor Fonseca Calderas “Sina” (18-11-1, 14-6 KO) took a knee in his scheduled six round bout against his German opponent Marco Deckmann (8-1, 7 KO). Calderas did his best to stay in the fight, but the 6-5 foot beast Deckmann towered over Calderas and broke him down. Round by round, liver shot to hooks, Calderas could not take any more punishment and took a knee ending the bout at 2:42 in the fourth round giving Deckmann the deserved KO win. Deckmann trains with legendary boxing trainer Freddie Roach and is another fighter out of Wild Card Boxing gym to watch out for in his career.

A six round super featherweight bout went the distance and ended in a draw for both California fighters: Adrian “Bam Bam” Corona (9-0-1, 2-0 KO) of Rialto and “Smokin” Joe Perez of San Diego (15-6-3, 10-1 KO). In the beginning rounds, both Californian natives were feeling each other out but we saw Corona as the more technical and calmer fighter in the ring. Round two was a good exchange from both. Hard hooks to the body and landing combos from Perez but Corona came back with a quick counter to the chin. By round four, Corona began to break down the body of Perez; Perez’ only way out was throwing jabs in order to get away from the line of fire. Corona looked to be controlling most of the fight and put the pressure on Perez as he waited for the perfect opening. The opening never really came as Perez came back with hooks to his counters. Judges Max De Luca and Fernando Villareal scored the bout 57-57 as Ron Scott Stevens scored the bout 58-56 for a majority draw.

Dariial Kuchmenov (3-0, 2 KO) ended the night and left the crowd cheering in awe as he laid out his opponent Erik Hanley (1-1) with a quick right cross to the chin. Kuchmenov just started to get warmed up with his powerful shots to showcase his technique, yet the perfect timing and placement left Hanley on the canvas for a couple of minutes ending the bout. Yet, another Wild Card Boxing gym fighter wins in the first round of his scheduled four-round featherweight bout. We expect to see great fights in the future from all fighters on the card.

Amateur Fights

The opening action of the night featured two female fighters in a WBC Amateur championship featherweight bout. Chantel Navarro of Southern California and Shavana Trejo of Central California fought in a three round featherweight bout. In the earlier rounds we saw Trejo become more of the aggressor in the bout, as Navarro studied her opponent for the remaining time in the round. The second round both women came out of their corner swinging. Trejo was still more in control of the fight, but Navarro became more of the aggressor. Navarro threw many combos as Trejo waited to counter. At the end of three rounds, the judges scored the bout 30-21 twice and 29-28 for Navarro to take the unanimous win.