Steve Forbes (35-10, 11 knockouts), a former world champion, showed up in street clothes. His opponent, veteran Emanuel Augustus, never made it out of a medical exam healthy enough to box in an eight-round junior welterweight bout.
The ring announcer told those inside the Hangar that Augustus, who has almost as many losses as wins, failed his exam. The last five times Augustus (38-34-6) has set foot in the ring, he has failed as well, losing each time.
Forbes’ return from a 10-month hiatus will have to wait. Maybe it will come at the next Fight Club OC event on June 7.
Maybe by then, the 37-year-old Augustus will get clearance from a doctor to fight. Forbes said he wants a fight sooner than that.
He wants someone to raise his gloves, because his last triumph came on Dec. 17, 2010.
Two super featherweights in the opening act have to wait as well for a shot to win again.
The fight between La Habra’s Ricardo Garcia and Azusa’s Danny Martinez was scored a draw by the three judges.
A head butt in the third round cost Garcia (3-2-1) a victory.
The referee deducted a point after Garcia cut Martinez near the left eye. Blood gushed out and then Garcia turned red.
He looked surprised. Before using his head for the wrong reason, Garcia was ahead in the fight. He knocked down Martinez (2-1-1) in the first round.
Martinez was the first to hit the canvas on the night.
No one went down during the four-round junior middleweight bout between Steffan Lugo, a former Newport Harbor High water polo player, and Sanger’s Jose Alvarez.
Lugo has traded in his Speedo for trunks. The new look is paying off as Lugo improved to 2-1 after recording a majority decision against Alvarez (1-1).
A different type of fight, mixed martial arts, came next, but the theme stayed the same early. The match went the distance like the first two in boxing.
Sylmar’s German Baltazar (2-1) picked up the win against Orange’s Mario Navarro (3-2) by unanimous decision. All three judges scored the bantamweight fight the same, 30-27.
No one argued the result.
Some in the crowd questioned why Palmdale’s Geovanni Sarran would get into the ring with Rowland Heights’ Alexander Flores in a heavyweight fight.
Sarran appeared as he was a foot shorter than the 6-foot-4 Flores was. The fight didn’t last long, the ref getting in between Flores’ punches and Sarran’s face near Sarran’s corner.
The ref stopped the fight late in the second round. Saran (2-4) looked lost, while Flores resembled an undefeated fighter. Flores improved to 8-0 and recorded his sixth knockout, the first at Fight Club OC, right before the main event.
Ramon Valadez, out of East L.A., and Moreno Valley’s Kevin Hoskins weren’t supposed to headline the card, but the two up-and-coming junior lightweights stepped in for Forbes and Augustus and they tried to save the night.
Valadez ended the evening midway through the six-round bout.
He finally caught the speedy Hoskins on the ropes, where he worked the body and head. Hoskins tried to maneuver away, only to move awkwardly to his left after receiving a blow to his face.
Valadez kept attacking him on the ropes. Hoskins hung there, dodging shots before the ref stepped in and stopped it at the 1:08 mark in the third round.
Valadez (11-1, six KOs) became the first fighter to hand Hoskins his first loss. Hoskins (6-1) could not believe it.