| | |  News from Around Banderas Bay | November 2008 
Valverde Wins Main Event at Collage Friday Night Fights
 Bob Cohen - PVNN
| | Christian Valverde has his hand raised in victory by referee Armando Tapia in the main event as his opponent Guisi Hernandez couldn't believe the decision. | 
| | Valverde on the left, awaiting another assualt from Hernandez in the a late round, who never stopped attacking. | 
| | Potentila future boxing star, 18 year old Sergio Villanueva of Tepic has his hand raised in victory over Jose Gomez of Puerto Vallarta. | 
| | Daniel "Choco" Mendez of Power Punch Gym in Puerto Vallarta wins an easy decision over Juan Espinosa of Mexico City. | 
| | On the left, 18 year old Salvador "Basuca" Arias of Puerto Vallarta improved to 4-0 and has a bright boxing future with his dominating victory over Rene Trujillo of Mexico City. | 
| | The kids had a 2 round fight that always ends in a draw, but Jose "Picachu" Becerra on the right always delights fans with his "Ali Shuffle". | | |
Christian Valverde, who has been away from the Puerto Vallarta fight scene for almost a year, made a successful return from fighting in Southern California by beating previously undefeated Guisi Hernandez of Tepic in a welterweight division fight. The bout was the main event on Paco Villanueva's Power Punch Gym Productions night of boxing. The popular Valverde improved to 20-5 in an 8 round bout that was a direct contrast in boxing styles. Hernandez kept his distance and unloaded long hard punches at every opportunity while Valverde moved in and out and scored with jabs, combinations and counter punches and landed a large percentage, although none did any damage.
The fight was so close on all judges' cards, that the 8th and final round determined who would win the fight. This fight was an example of studying the match by fans and determining the winners by watching everything that a fighter does. Valverde's experience allowed him to do just enough to take a few early rounds to build a slight lead. Hernandez swung regularly with everything he had and Valverde caught some of the punches with his gloves or forearms and ducked many. He counterpunched when he could and all this added points to a fight that many would have thought would go to the fighter from Tepic.
Prior to the fight I spoke with Christian and he told me that his experiences in California were invaluable to him. He fought three times and won twice, but was able to spar and train with some top fighters. I asked him about his opponent and he told me he fought most of his fights in Guadalajara and was a big puncher. Valverde showed heart and a great sense of the ring, the scoring and his opponents and left the crowd cheering at 1:00 AM at the evening end.
There were four other professional fights on the undercard as well as 13 amateur fights that included a bout with 8 year olds boys and also a fight with two girls. All the amateurs were well trained and one corner always had a Villanueva fighter. The event began at 6:00 PM and made for a long night and the first professional fight began at 10:00 PM.
The undercard gave fight fans perhaps a glimpse at a future Mexican star as 18 year old Sergio Villanueva of Tepic completely dominated Jose Gomez of Puerto Vallarta in a 6 round fight. Villanueva had it all, great ring sense and movement, superb jabs that did damage, precise combinations, counterpunched extremely well and was able to duck most of the punches thrown at him. He had a stretch in the early rounds where is appeared that he didn't miss a punch.
He won an easy unanimous decision and didn't lose a round any scorecards. It was the first time Villanueva was stretched out to 6 rounds and gave no indication of not being able to go further. It is rare to see such a young fighter with the ring savvy that Sergio showed and I urge fight fans to watch for him in the near future; he could be fighting some big fights by 20, or like a majority of boxers, could wash out and just fight on the local circuits. Time will tell.
In the featherweight division, Daniel "Choco" Mendez of Power Punch Gym easily won a unanimous decision over Juan Carlos Espinosa of Mexico City. Mendez fought as a boxer and Espinosa was a brawler and was knocked down in the 2nd and 4th rounds and tired badly in the last two rounds to the delight of the hometown crowd.
There was another young fighter in the bantamweight division from Power Punch Gym named Salvador "Basuca" Arias, who also at only 18 years old, looked like he could also be a very successful competitor in the near future. He completely dominated Rene Trujillo of Mexico City with a complete offensive arsenal in his unanimous victory. He attacked, jabbed extremely well, countered and was crisp with his combinations. Arias improved to 4-0 as a pro and we will watch for him in the future.
The first professional fight pitted Francisco Hernandez of Power Punch Gym against Ramon Gonzalez of Tepic in the super welterweight division. Hernandez completely dominated his opponent and knocked him down in the 1st round and then twice more in the 2nd round before referee Aramando Tapia stopped the bout for a TKO victory for Hernandez.
The night was a long one and the house was full from the start until the end of the night and another successful fight card for Paco Villanueva, who appears to be training some good looking fighters. Look for Paco to present another fight card in the near future. |
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