Story and photos by David Finger

by fightnews.com

One of the Southwest’s most successful boxing series returned to Hobbs, New Mexico Friday night (February 17th) as local prospects Gerardo Quintana and Isidro Castillo Jr. both emerged victorious. But whereas Castillo dominated his debuting opponent, a last minute sub named Ryan Colwell from Albuquerque, Quintana was taken the distance in a back and forth war that nearly saw the local prospect derailed.

In the main event Gerardo Quintana, 172.4, returned to the ring after a layoff of over 14 months to take on the little known Cesar Zamarripa, 174, of Ciudad Juarez. Zamarripa was making his professional debut but had nonetheless had some experience coming in, with six amateur fights in Juarez as well as six MMA fights. Zamarripa was a self described puncher who promised to give fans the “fight of the night” at the weigh-ins, and he more than kept his word as he landed a hard right hand in the opening minute of the round that told both fans, and Quintana, that the fight was not going to be an easy one.

Quintana was more than willing to brawl and appeared to edge Zamarripa in the opening round, but it was a tough round that foretold a difficult night for the Hobbs native. By round two Quintana incorporated a solid body attack into his offense but it still didn’t slow down the forward moving Mexican, who walked in throwing wild right hands. By mid round Quintana showed signs of slowing down as he began to hold on, prompting Zamarripa to up the pressure to close the round. Quintana bounced back in round three, countering Zamarripa’s solid right hands with short left hooks that landed flush and seemed to finally derail the tank from Juarez. Zamarripa backed up, prompting Quintana to push forward with a solid body attack of his own. With the fight still up in the air going into the final round both fighters fought accordingly. For Zamarripa a win over Quintana would establish him as arguably the best light heavyweight prospect in the Juarez-El Paso area whereas for Quintana a loss would almost certainly end his run for as a contender and could have closed the book on his career. The result was the round of the night as both Zamarripa and Quintana brawled accordingly. Zamarripa incorporated the uppercut into his offense and landed some heavy head shots, but Quintana refused to back up and threw heavy shots of his own and capitalized on Zamarripa’s disregard for defense in the final round.

As the decision was announced it initially looked like the fight might end in a draw as Judge Ester Lopez had the fight scored 38-38, she was overruled by judges Anthony Romero and Juan Nunez, who both scored the fight 39-37 for Quintana.

“I was very rusty,” Quintana said after the fight. “My bad performances make for good fights.”

With the win Quintana improves to 6-1-1, 3 KOs while Zamarripa slips to 0-1 in the sport of boxing. The referee was Stan Saavedra.

In the co-main event undefeated Isidro Castillo Jr., 165.8, had a considerably easier night, demolishing debuting Ryan Colwell, 168.6, of Albuquerque in 1:35 of the opening round. Colwell took the fight on less than a day’s notice, after the original opponent was dropped from the card after his medicals were turned in a few hours late to the commission. Colwell stood little chance but fought with heart, jumping on Castillo at the bell in a brave, but foolish, attempt to frustrate Castillo and possibly catch the prospect off guard. But Castillo easily blocked the attack and backed up Colwell with his own offense a minute into the round. When a left hook sent Colwell into the corner moments later the Albuquerque native tried to cover up and survive the onslaught. But his cornerman elected to throw in the towel, prompting referee Ray Chavez to wave the fight off at 1:35 of the opening round. With the win the Rocky Mountain Boxing #6 ranked junior middleweight improves to 4-0, 3 KOs.

In the opening fight of the night, winless Jordan Gregory, 165.8, almost captured his first win over Clovis New Mexico’s Richard “Rico” Urquizo, 169. Gregory lost a decision in January to Bryant McClain in a fight in which his lack of conditioning and his inability to maintain McClain’s strong pace cost him the fight. Although Gregory still needs more roadwork, he did appear to learn an important lesson from his fight with McClain, refusing to let Urquizo outwork him. Nonetheless Urquizo did appear the more polished fighter, and by round three although Gregory was throwing punches, it was clear that he lacked the energy to put much of anything behind his punches. Nonetheless Urquizo failed to capitalize on his winded foe in the final round, and although he seemed to clearly win the round he failed to remove all doubt about the decision. Judge Juan Nunez had Gregory up 39-37 while Judge Anthony Romero scored the fight 39-37 for Urquizo. The third judge, Esther Lopez, scored the fight 38-38. Urquizo now sees his record stand at 2-4-2, 1 KO while Gregory’s record now sits at 0-2-1.

In an entertaining light heavyweight fight Desmond Hill, 175.2, of Odessa Texas scored a third round TKO over the gritty Joe Reyes, 174, of El Paso. Reyes came out strong in the opening round but his shaky defense proved his undoing. As he rushed in Hill landed a hard right cross at the close of the opening round. Although Reyes didn’t flinch it was clear he couldn’t take four rounds of heavy punches of that nature and by the second round Reyes was no longer walking through the Hill right hands. In the third round Reyes was visibly winded and seemed ready to go when another right cross snapped the head back of Reyes. Another right hand followed by a left hook to the body sent Reyes down to the canvas in a heap at the midway point of the round. The fight was waved off midway through the count by referee David Rios, with the official time being 1:34 of the third round. While Reyes drops to 0-1.

With the impressive card, Isidro Castillo and School of Hard Knocks Boxing continues its tradition of solid boxing in New Mexico. Both Quintana and Castillo are tentatively slated to fight in Texas next month.