Story and photos by Ricardo Ibarra

By Fightnews.com

In one of two pro bouts featured Saturday night at the Kah-Nee-Ta Resort and Spa in Warm Springs, Oregon, heavyweight Juan Esquivel (5-0, 5 KOs), of Zillah, Washington, scored a second round stoppage victory over Daniel Gilbert (0-1), capping off Warm Springs Nation Boxing’s twelve bout Pro/Am show.
Esquivel, who was fighting for the first time in two years, used a crafty shoulder roll defense in the first to avoid his aggressive opponent’s looping flurries and find openings for his counter straight rights and left hooks. Esquivel consistently out-landed Gilbert and hurt him badly with a right to the gut as the round came to an end.

In the second, Esquivel stepped up his aggression and dropped Gilbert early in the round with a right upstairs. The knockdown seemed to energize both fighters, motivating them to open up with abandon as the action was allowed to resume, giving the crowd some solid back and forth action. Esquivel was the first to settle down, though, finding a rhythm landing with quick shots in between Gilbert’s wild swings. Another flush right hand dropped Gilbert for one last time. The fighter made it up at five, but the referee made the call to stop it at 2:22 of the round, giving Esquivel the TKO win, his fifth in a row.
Local crowd favorite Jasper Smith (1-0) secured his first win as a paid fighter in a Jr. middleweight contest, defeating Portland, Oregon’s David Combs (1-3-1) by unanimous decision. The bout was fought at a fast pace with both men letting their hands go from the start, but it was Smith who appeared to land the harder shots at a more consistent rate. All three judges scored the bout 39-37 for Smith.

A third pro bout that had been scheduled between Steve Villalobos and Aaron Minton was scrapped when Minton had to pull out earlier in the week and no suitable opponent could be found.