American Metal & Iron Fight Night at the Tank Results
By Mario Cabrera, Jr
On a night where Larry Merchant received a standing ovation in front of 2,841 fans at HP Pavilion, San Jose native Ricardo Cortes defeated James Buggs in the main event of American Metal & Iron Fight Night at the Tank.
The night’s marquee matchup had headliner Ricardo Cortes (22-3-1, 15KO) of San Jose up against James Buggs (8-9-3) of Oakland in their Middleweight fight. The first round was slow as neither Cortes nor Buggs was able to land any punches of real substance. Round two saw lots of potential with both fighters throwing haymaker after haymaker, only to have their opponent dodge the potentially fight-ending blows. It was in the third that the punches started to connect and that’s when Cortes took over. The moment that Buggs was done was as clear as can be. He seemingly gave up with about 20 seconds to go, handing the fight to Cortes who proceeded to pummel Buggs into the corner. The referee stepped in and called a TKO at 2:44. The local boy Cortes improved to 23-3-1.
The night kicked off with a Welterweight fight between Maurice Slade (0-2) of San Jose and John Dunham (0-4) of Stockton. The local boy Slade bloodied Dunham’s right eye socket early in the first round. This was an indicator of things to come as Slade delivered a devastating blow that knocked down Dunham midway through the next round. Not long after, Dunham sustained a cut from a head butt above his left eye at 2:27 of the second round, leading to a technical draw.
In the night’s Super Welterweight fight Clint Coronel (0-0-1) of San Jose squared off against Tony Juarez (0-2) of Yuba City. In the first round Coronel delivered a series of rapid body shots causing Juarez to take a knee. This was followed by rapid fire punches from both fighters in the final 10 seconds that continued up until the bell sounded. In the second round, Coronel overwhelmed Juarez and backed him into a corner, with the final punch dropping Juarez and it appeared that he may be down for good. However, after a seven count he was finally able to get up. The third spelled trouble for Juarez when he was unable to keep up with Coronel. After Juarez sustained a series of undefended punches to the face, the referee intervened and declared a TKO in Coronel’s favor.
The third bout of the evening, a Super Bantamweight, consisted of two fighters with an abundance of energy. Jonathan Alcantara (0-0-1) of Novato came out launching lefts and rights as quickly as possible, yet he struggled to land the majority of them. Juan Topoz (1-1) of Santa Rosa kept his composure and came back in round two by landing multiple body shots and one to the head, which caused Alcantara to stumble to the mat. After a relatively uneventful third round, Topoz drew blood from Alcantara’s forehead in the fourth. The final ten seconds brought the crowd to its feet as both fighters unleashed everything they had left in their tanks until the fight ended. In dramatic fashion, Juan Topoz got the win in a split-decision drawing both cheers and jeers from the crowd.
The female fight featured the only non-Californian Michelle Nelson (1-1) of Saskatchewan, CAN who took on Claudia Gutierrez (0-1) of Chico. The first three rounds contained incessant back and forth shots with Gutierrez coming out on top more often than not. Nelson made a push at the end but it wasn’t nearly enough to get her over the hump as Gutierrez won the rather anticlimactic fight by unanimous decision.
Pedro Rios of Berkeley made his professional debut against Fernando Barajas (4-2) of San Leandro in their Super Middleweight fight. The first round was slow going with both fighters feeling each other out. The intensity picked up slightly in round two; however, it was during round three that things began to heat up. Barajas delivered one punch after the other until it became too much for Rios to handle. At 2:55 of round three the referee called a TKO in favor of Barajas, which improved his record to 5-2.
Tony Hirsch (8-2-1, 4KO) of Oakland was informed just days before his fight that he would not be facing Gary Young, but rather Francisco Garcia (5-2, 4KO) of Los Angeles in their Super Welterweight fight. That didn’t seem to faze him as the fight was called a TKO just 2:46 into the first round after Hirsh bombarded Garcia with a flurry of punches, causing Garcia to wobble around the ring, before he found his final resting place, a nice spot against the ropes.
The AMI Cup went to Juan Topoz for the best fight of the night, which came with a nice $1,000 bonus.
The Blue team received the $2,100 bonus, finishing the night 5-0-1.
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