ONTARIO, CA (February 21, 2022) – This past Friday at the Doubletree Hotel in Ontario, CA, Thompson Boxing Promotions kicked off 2022 with a bang, selling out their “New Blood” event with 1,427 fans in attendance.
In the 8-round main event, Ruben “Ace” Torres (18-0, 15 KOs) remained undefeated with a stellar performance, stopping Cristian Mino (20-5-2, 17 KOs), by way of a sixth-round knockout. With the victory, Torres captured the WBC USNBC title, his first regional belt of his career.
Torres was magnificent throughout the entire fight as he tamed the aggressive approach that Mino was bringing by using his height and reach advantage to perfection, keeping Mino at bay with his superior jab. Mino did his best to get inside but was running into hard shots as Torres’ timing was flawless. After dominating the first five rounds, Torres dropped Mino twice in round six, the first was with vicious uppercut to the head in the early part of the round. Torres then finished Mino off with a picture-perfect left hook to the body, ending the bout at the 1:37 mark of round six.
“I felt my performance against Mino was one of my best to date,” said Torres. “I was really relaxed in this fight and that’s a credit to all the hard work my team and I put in during training camp. Winning the WBC USNBC title will now get me one step closer to a world title fight. I’m hoping I’ll be ranked in the top 15 when the new WBC ratings come out.”
In the 8-round featherweight co-feature, Horacio Garcia (35-4-1, 25 KOs) defeated Isaac “Dinamita” Zarate (16-6-4, 2 KOs) with a majority decision victory. Garcia kept the pressure on Zarate from the opening bell and landed the harder shots throughout the fight. Zarate showed a lot of heart but was outworked by Garcia, who was walking through all his punches. Scorecards read 80-72, 79-72 and 76-76.
“I was in great shape going into this fight and it showed with my performance, as I felt I dominated this fight,” said Garcia. “Not sure why one judge had it even, but that is expected when fighting close to someone’s hometown. I’m hoping this victory will lead to a big fight in the future.”
In the fourth bout of the evening, welterweight Loui Lopez (10-1-1, 4 KOs) survived being dropped twice in round one, winning a majority decision against Cristian Dominguez (11-4, 6 KOs) of Las Vegas, Nevada. In the opening round, Dominguez sent Lopez to the canvas with left hook to the head. Lopez got up and got caught again with an overhand right to the temple at the end of the round. After that, Lopez outworked Dominguez for the rest of their scheduled six round bout, as he was in superior shape. Scorecards read 57-55 twice and 56-56.
“After I got caught twice in round one, I got my composure back and made the proper adjustments.” said the local fan favorite Lopez, who resides in nearby Corona, CA. “My will to win and being in outstanding shape carried me through this fight. I was also feeding of the energy of my hometown fans.”
In a scheduled 6-round featherweight bout, Japhethlee Llamido (11-0, 7 KOs) of Norwalk, Calif., cruised to a unanimous decision victory against Eric Barrios Santos (3-2, 3 KOs), of San Marcos Calif. Llamido used a lot of lateral movement from the southpaw stance to get into position to lands his punches. Santos showed a lot of toughness but was outboxed for most of the fight, which was the third bout on the card. Scorecards read 59-54 twice, 58-55 across the board
“My opponent was throwing a lot of wild punches, so I had to use my feet and counter his attack,” said Llamido. “I’m still learning, and I know with more experience I’ll be ready for all the top contenders in the featherweight division.”
In the second bout of the night, a battle of unbeaten super bantamweights commenced as Sean Brewer (2-0, 1 KO), of Las Vegas, NV, defeated Ivan Zarate of San Pedro, Calif (3-1, 1KO) by way of a first of a round knockout. After a few heated exchanges, Brewer hurt Zarate with a powerful straight right hand, then later landed a devastating right hook that put Zarate on the deck. Zarate was hurt bad, and the fight was stopped at the 2:50 mark of round one.
“It felt good to get my first knockout as a pro, especially against another undefeated fighter,” said Brewer. “I knew when I had him hurt the first time that it was a matter of time before I landed a big shot.”
Heavyweight Oscar Torrez (8-0, 4 KOs), of Rialto, Calif., won a unanimous decision against Daniel Najera (9-5-1, 4 KOs) of Monterey, Mexico, in the opening bout of the night. Although, Najera put of a valiant effort, he was dominated over four rounds. Scorecards read 40-36 across the board, all in favor of Torrez.
“I was trying to hard to get the knockout, and got out of my game a little bit,” said Torrez. “I was still able to dominate the fight and get some good rounds in. I have a long way to go, but I’m getting more experience, and that’s a good thing.”
