Nonito Donaire Wins NABF Super flyweight title, Israel Hernandez Knocks out Tyrone Harris

21.01.06 – by Kent Appel @Ringside – Gary Shaw Productions and Ringside Ticket presented a six bout professional boxing card at the Pechanga Resort and Casino on Friday January 20, 2006, portions of which were broadcast live on Showtime Television on Showbox the Next Generation. The program was headlined by a fight for the vacant NABF Super Flyweight Championship that pitted Kahren Harutyunyan of Glendale, California against Nonito Donaire of San Leandro, California..

The fight resulted in a victory for Donaire by a split decision . With the win, Donaire, 114 pounds, improved his record to 14-1, 8 by knockout while Harutyunyan, 113 1/4 pounds, slipped to 13-3-3, 0 by knockout.

Donaire, the new NABF Super flyweight champion had to work hard for his win which two of the three judges saw by the score of 97-92 in his favor. The third judge scored the bout 95 to 94 for Harutyunyan. I agreed with the two judges who saw Donaire as the winner but by a smaller margin, 97 to 94.

The bout opened with both fighters wasting no time in getting into heated battle. Both men landed solid shots in this opening stanza with Donarie landing with a good left hook early on followed by good use of the right hand to the body, a left/right combination to the head at mid point, and a good assortment of jabs throughout the round. Harutyunyan for his part was also effective in round one by also landing a solid left hook early, several right leads to the head, as well as rights to the body. I saw this round as being even.

Round two continued to have the fighters battling on even terms until about the mid point of the round when Donaire landed a terrific short left hook that started as a jab and was turned into a hook that knocked Harutyunyan down. Harutyunyan was not badly hurt though and by the end of the round he was trading punches fairly evenly. But with the knockdown, I saw the round for Donaire by a score of 10 to 8.

Round three saw the fortunes reversed as Harutyunyan returned the favor by hurting Donaire with a hard combination to the head in the middle of the round after the two had traded evenly up to that point but Harutyunyan was unable to knock Donaire down so he wasn’t able to make up the point he had lost in the previous round.

Both fighters landed good shots in round number four but Donaire landed the harder shots, hurting Harutyunyan with a left hook to the head, a left to the body, and a right/left combination to the body. Donaire also made good use of the right lead to the head in this round, advantage Donaire.

The trend continued in round number five as Donaire landed the more effective blows including good use of the jab and the left hand to the body throughout the round and he was strong also with the right hand lead to the head.

Harutyunyan fought back hard in round number six and he was getting the better of the action in the first half of the round but in the second half of the round Donaire fought back hard and he was able to overcome his opponent’s advantage. I saw this round as being even. Harutyunyan landed the jab consistently early as well as the right lead to the head and Donaire came back with right hand leads to the head as well as a hard left hook to the head and a left to the body late in the round.

Harutyunyan continued to be effective with the jab in round number seven and he was the busier of the two fighters adding right leads to the head, left/combinations to the head, and a left to the body. Donaire did land some left hooks to the head, some jabs, and the right lead to the head but Harutyunyan still had the advantage.

Donaire turned the tide in round number eight as he let his hands go more with strong use of right hand leads to the head and the body as well as left/right combinations to the head and a left hook. Harutyunyan was missing more punches this round than he previously did in earlier rounds.

The two fighters traded evenly in round number nine but I gave the nod to Donaire as he landed the hardest punch of the round, a left hook to the head that rocked Harutyunyan at midpoint of the round.

Harutyunyan won the last round as he landed a hard right hand lead to the head and a multiple combination to the head late in the round after landing right leads to the head, a good use of the jab, left/rights to the head, and a good left hook in the round. But Donaire came back and landed a left hook followed by a good multiple combination to the head at the bell ending the fight.

Harutyunyan came back strong in that last round but he couldn’t overcome Donaire’s advantage of a 10 to 8 round in round number two because of the knockdown and that is why Donaire pulled off the victory, that and the fact that although a lot of the rounds were very close, Donaire just had a slight edge overall. I don’t agree with two of the judges’ scores of a six point advantage for Donaire though and the fact that one of the judges thought Harutyunyan won a by one point shows the fight seemed to be closer than two of the judges saw it.

In a lightweight contest scheduled for ten rounds Tyrone Harris of Lansing, Michigan took on Israel Hernandez of Mexico. Hernandez, 132 1/4 pounds, was the winner in come from behind spectacular fashion by knockout at 1:16 of the fourth round and he ups his record to 12-2-1, 12 by knockout while Tyrone Harris, 132 1/2 pounds, takes a step back to 14-1, 12 by Knockout.

The bout started off fast and it didn’t seem that Hernandez would even make it past the first round as he suffered a bad cut around his left eye courtesy of Harris’ accurate right jabs and straight left hands.

Hernandez’s corner did a good job of keeping the cut under control so Hernandez was able to come out for round number two but Harris again opened up the cut with more jabs and straight left hands with Hernandez barely making it through the round again.

It seemed it was a matter of time when the referee would step in and stop the fight in Harris’ favor but at the middle of round number three Hernandez hurt Harris with a hard left hook that was set up by good right leads to the head, jabs, and a good right uppercut.

Hernandez was bleeding again when he absorbed more punches from Harris but at 1:16 of round number four Hernandez rocked Harris with a hard left uppercut that he followed up by a furious two handed assault punctuated by a left hook that put Harris down for a count of nine. The referee decided that Harris was too badly hurt to continue so he awarded the contest to Hernandez.

In a Welterweight bout scheduled for ten rounds Vivian Harris of Brooklyn, New York, a former WBA Junior Welterweight champion, took on Marteze Logan of Covington, Tennessee. Vivian Harris, 143 pounds, won the contest by unanimous decision by scores of 100 to 89 by all three judges He improves his record to 26-2-1, 17 by knockout while Logan, also 143 pounds, slips to 22-20-2, 5 by knockout.

This was a sloppy fight but it was no fault of Vivian Harris as he did his part by continued effective use of the left jab and combinations to the head and the body all through the fight. Logan circled away from Harris and he ducked low much of the time attempting to avoid Harris’ punches.

In addition to not being very effective on offense, Logan was deducted a point for head butting in round number six. Logan did attempt to step up his offense starting in round number eight but it was too little, too late as he never did enough to win a round.

In a six round Welterweight fight Nick Casal of Niagara Falls, New York battled against Jose Noyola of Mexico. Casal won by unanimous decision by scores of 59 to 52 by all three judges and he improves his record to 12-0, 10 by knockout while Noyola is now 23-5, 12 by knockout. Casal weighed in at 138 1/2 and Noyola tipped the scales at 145 1/4.

Casal opened the fight by letting go with both hands and he continued to do so throughout the fight and Noyola could do little to stem the tide and to make matters worse, after getting knocked down by a barrage of punches by Casal in round number four, Noyola was deducted a point for hitting behind the head and another point for hitting with his shoulder in the sixth and final round.

A Featherweight fight scheduled for six rounds saw Abel Barralleza of Mexico fight against Manuel Sanchez also of Mexico. Barralleza, 125 1/2 pounds, was the winner by unanimous decision by scores of 58 to 56 by all three judges. Barralleza improves his record to 8-0, 3 by knockout while Sanchez, 125 pounds, falls to 2-2-1 1 by knockout.

Finally in four round Women’s Welterweight fight Tricia Turtin, 152 pounds, of Seattle, Washington defeated Tanya Gallegos, 155 1/2 pounds, of Denver, Colorado by unanimous decision. Turtin climbs the win ladder to 7-0, 2 by knockout while Gallegos is now 3-5, 2 by knockout.