By Rocco Morales at ringside
In main event action at Fight Club OC in Costa Mesa, California, a scheduled six round heavyweight bout, 21 year old, Alex Flores (7-0, 5KO) stayed perfect with a brutal first round knockout victory over the game Kelsey Arnold (4-9). Flores, recently signed by Roy Englebrecht Promotions, scored his most impressive victory to date with a crushing right hand that sent Arnold down in stages, as if in slow motion, to the delight of 1,471 fans in attendance. Time of the stoppage was 2:51 of the first round and the referee had no reason to bother with a count.
Up until the time of the stoppage, Flores was hammering Arnold with hard left hooks to the body and clubbing shots to the face that bloodied Arnold from nearly the beginning. To his credit, Arnold never quit punching back and landed a couple good shots of his own, but it was while he was punching that he left himself wide open to the violent right hand that ended his night.
Flores wins his fourth bout of the year and appears ready for an even bigger 2012. With his fan friendly style and at 6’5″ good enough size to compete in the heavyweight division, Flores could have a very bright future ahead of him.
A scheduled six round woman’s lightweight bout saw fan favorite, Lisette Medal (4-1-1), outhustle her much taller opponent, Floyd Mayweather Sr. trained, Yolanda Ezell (1-2, 1KO). Medal was able to avoid the long jab of the southpaw Ezell to work effectively inside and land both left hooks and hard right crosses. Ezell had her moments and won a couple middle rounds, but Medal simply outworked Ezell and landed the harder shots. By judges scores of 58-56, 59-55 and 59-55, Medal was the unanimous decision winner. Although victorious, the 5’1″, if that, Medal, looks better suited for a much lower weight class, while there may be no hope for Ezell who appears to have all of the physical tools to be successful yet does not come close to living up to her nickname of “Ms. Knockout.”
In other action, a scheduled four round welterweight contest, debuting David Barragan (1-0, 1KO), did not disappoint the legion of fans he seemed to bring from his native San Diego, and knocked out the clueless John Ferrari (0-1) who should consider changing his last name as he appeared to be more of a Pinto in the ring than a Ferrari. Barragan looked very sharp but it was against an opponent whose boxing training looked like it may have consisted of playing boxing video games on Wii, as he clumsily lunged in with every punch he threw and was tripping on his own feet. Finally, early in the second round, Barragan landed an innocent enough looking left hook that laid out Ferrari for the count.
Opening bout action, a scheduled four round light heavyweight contest, saw Ronald Gavril (1-0, 1KO) knock out human heavybag, Gilbert Gastanum (0-3-1). Gavril, trained by boxing great James Toney, impressed more with his Sergio Martinez good looks than he did with his boxing prowess. Gavril had a cutesy style and threw his jab more as a rangefinder than a weapon but Gastanum, although appearing to have boxing skills, played along, did not throw many punches back, and seemed to allow Gavril to learn on the job. By the third round, Gavril finally started landing a hard left hook to the body and after a few of these shots, Gastanum finally went down for the count to give Gavril an early Christmas present of his first pro victory. Time of the stoppage was 2:11 of the third round.
Fight Club OC was presented by Roy Englebrecht Promotions and the venue was The Hangar at the Orange County Fair & Event Center. Fight Club OC returns on February 16th. For ticket information, visit www.fightcluboc.com
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Rocco Morales for FightNews.com