Diaz knockout of O’Malley headlines Pechanga six bout card

24.04.04 – By Kent Appel @ Ringside: The Pechanga Resort and Casino in Temecula, California was the scene Saturday April 17, 2004 of a fight card that featured undefeated lightweight contender Juan Diaz of Houston, Texas verses Martin O’Malley of Edmunds, Washington. The card was presented by Main Events, Telemundo, Budweiser, and Ringside Ticket, in association with Pechanga and portions of it were broadcast live on NBC television and Telemundo.

Diaz, the number four ranked lightweight in the world according to the WBC, stormed out of his corner from the opening bell to batter O’Malley for just over a round, scoring a second round knockout. The end came at just 55 seconds of round number two when the referee intervened and declared Diaz the winner. O’Malley had already fell victim to a knockdown courtesy of a Diaz left hook and it was a wise decision as O’Malley was taking a two handed pounding from Diaz without responding back with punches of his own. With the win, Diaz, 136 pounds, improved his record to 24-0, 12 by KO while O’Malley, 135 1/2 pounds, took a step back to 21-3-1, 14 by KO.

In a ten round junior welterweight CO feature bout, Jauquin Gallardo of San Leandro, California scored a ten round unanimous decision over Arturo Morua of Guadalajara, Mexico. The judges scores were as follows: 97 to 93, 98 to 92, and 98 to 92 all for the winner, Gallardo. Gallardo improved his record to 16-2-1, 5 by KO while Morua went to 18-5-1, 13 by KO.

I have to wonder which fight the judges were watching, as although I agreed with their assessment of who the winner was, I thought the fight was much closer and that a draw would have been a fair verdict.

My score of 96 to 95 for Gallardo was what I saw from my ringside seat. It was a nip and tuck battle that showed first Gallerdo as being dominate and then Morua doing likewise throughout the entire bout. I had the bout as being even until the very last round in which Gallardo was the stronger of the two, using very hard attacks to both the head and the body to gain the win.

In a welterweight contest scheduled for eight rounds, Nurhan Suleyman of Houston, Texas, formally of Kazakhstan scored a sixth round knockout over Archak Ter-Meliksetian of Glendale, California, formally of Armenia. Suleyman, 150 pounds, improved his record to 14-0, 6 by KO while Ter-Meliksetian fell to 8-1, 7 by KO.

Suleyman was the stronger of the two fighters all through the contest, winning every round on my card. He set up the knockout, which occurred at 2:41 of round six, with strong combinations to the body and head topped with a right uppercut which finished the job.

Also on the card: in a welterweight bout scheduled for four rounds, David Jackson of Seattle, Washington defeated Jorge Aguilar of Santa Fe Springs, California by a first round knockout at 2:45 of the round. Jackson, 144 1/2 pounds, improved his record to 4-0, 4 by KO while Aguilar, 145 1/2 pounds, slipped to 3-3-2, 2 by KO.

Patrick Ortiz of Ringside Ticket, who once promoted Sugar Shane Mosley, had this to say about Jackson, a member of the United States Olympic games team in 2000 and who also was a former national amateur champion. “David Jackson reminds me of Shane Mosley. He has a similar style and he may be as good or better than Shane is. Shane is a great fighter but we expect good things from David also.”

In a junior middleweight fight scheduled for four rounds, Alexis Camacho, of Monterey, Mexico took on Geraldo Justo Ramirez of Sacramento, California. This contest was won by Camacho by a majority decision by scores of 37 to 37, 38 to 36, and 38-36 and it featured something very rare in boxing, a double knockdown in the first round, courtesy of left hooks from both fighters. Camacho improved to 1-0, 0 by KO while Ramirez slipped to 0-1, 0 by KO.

Finally in a scheduled four round junior welterweight contest Mike Alvarado, of Denver, Colorado took on Rudy Cruz of Fresno, California. Alvarado scored a first round knockout at 2:18 of the round and now he has a record of 2-0. There was no record available for Cruz. Alvarado weighed 140 pounds and Cruz weighed 147 pounds.