(SOUTHHAVEN, Miss.) With a 3-2 win Thursday night, it is safe to say that the Mexico City Guerreros might just have the Memphis Force’s number in inaugural season of the World Series of Boxing (WSB) as they once again went on the road and grabbed the victory.
With 5-0 wins in each of the team’s first two meetings, the Guerreros were hoping for more of the same as the two teams dueled at the DeSoto Civic Center, but tonight the Force exhibited a fight that had been missing in five of their first six contests. But a close split decision victory in the light heavyweight decision would decide each team’s fate in the end..
The Guerreros move to 4-3 on the season in the league standings as they continue their pursuit of the front-running Los Angeles Matadors (5-1) who will be on display against the Miami Gallos Sunday night in Los Angeles. Memphis drops to 1-6 on the year and have dropped five straight since their lone league win, November 26. The top WSB Americas team automatically advances to the WSB playoffs set for April.
Elias Emigdio (Zitlala, Mexico) got things started for the Guerreros with a 49-46, 48-47, 49-46 unanimous decision over Ronny Beblik (Chemnitz, Germany) in the bantamweight clash. With the win, Emigdio moves to 1-1 on the year while Beblik falls to 0-2
Lightweight Angel Gutierrez (Queretaro, Mexico) continued the Guerreros’ winning ways against Yahman Phelps (Cincinnati, Ohio) with a 49-46, 48-47, 49-46 unanimous decision. Gutierrez now is 1-1 this season, while Phelps drops to 0-2.
With the Guerreros holding a 12-0 advantage over the Force, Terrell Gausha (Cleveland, Ohio), the 2009 U.S. National Champion, stepped into the ring and put an end to the Guerrero dominance over the Force to date this season with a split decision (49-46, 45-50, 49-48) victory over Esquiva Florentino (Espirtú Santo, Brazil). Gausha looked impressive in his WSB debut back on November 26, but had struggled in his previous two bouts. Florentino, meanwhile, looked unbeatable against William Williams of the Miami Gallos back in mid-December but struggled in Gausha’s home ring.
The deciding bout of the evening took place in the light heavyweight division featuring Javier Ortega (Mexico City, Mexico), who came into the evening ranked No. 8 in the WSB, and Tony Mack (Plano, Texas) of the Memphis Force. In a bout that could have gone either way, Ortega got the better of Mack this night with Ortega scoring a split-decision victory by the narrowest of margins, 48-47, 47-48, 49-48, to put the Guerreros up for good 3-1. Ortega’s win moved him up the WSB rankings to fourth, while Mack was left with an 0-2 record.
Heavyweight Javonta Charles (Memphis, Tenn.) got to fight in front of his hometown fans, friends and family in his third WSB bout and took advantage of that momentum to break into the win column for the first time in his young WSB career. Facing Alex Rivera (Palm Springs, Calif.), who came into the battle already fatigued with an illness, Charles wouldn’t let up throughout the bout. By the fifth round, Rivera had decided he had had enough and didn’t come out of the corner, giving Charles the TKO victory.
Up next, the Guerreros get set for a key home match with the Los Angeles Matadors on February 4. The Guerreros are 0-2 against the Matadors thus far on the season. Memphis will travel to Miami February 5 to take on the Gallos, with both team’s having split the season series.
About World Series of Boxing Americas
The World Series of Boxing is a global sports league created by the International Amateur Boxing Association (AIBA) to reunite the broader boxing world and its grassroots foundation, provide a bridge between Olympic boxing and professional boxing, and grow the sport’s fan base in the United States and throughout the world.