THE HAVOC II AT HARD ROCK SAN DIEGO, RESULTS AND PHOTOS
By Ed de la Vega, DDS
PhilBoxing.com
Sun, 12 Jul 2009
San Diego, CA:- Rogue Boxing Promotions presented their second “Havoc at the Hard Rock” yesterday and much like the first one, it almost lived up to everyone’s expectations except for one minor hitch. The fight between two heavyweights, Yohan Banks and Anthony Mooney was cancelled.
But to the credit of the promoters, they announced that ticket holders can ask for a partial refund of the money they paid to see the fight. Some did, many did not even bother.
What a class act from the people of Rogue Boxing!
So, instead of four fights, the crowd was left to see just three.
But they were just enough to satisfy most of the fight fans and judging from the crowd’s reaction, it appears they went home happy. After all, two of the local boys did well enough to win.
In the curtain raiser, two middleweights, Marcus Upshaw of Jacksonville, Florida and Derrick Thomas of Orange, California fought a rather slow fight that did not draw any excitement from the crowd until the second round when Upshaw knocked down Thomas for a mandatory eight count and then when the fight resumed, knocked him out for good. The end came at 2:01 in round two.
The next fight drew a lot of action not only on the ring but with the crowd as well. It was a 4 rounder between a slugger from Mexico, Raymundo Ortega and a local boy from San Diego, Angel Estrada.
In spite of a nasty cut that opened on his left upper eyelid towards the end of round one, Ortega did not lose his bravado and he continued to exchange shots with Estrada much to the delight of the crowd.
But the gallant stand he put fort was sadly not enough and he lost via a unanimous decision. Estrada thus kept his record clean and made the home town crowd happy.
The main event featured a Filipino boxer, Mercito Gesta who is now based in San Diego and slowly but surely being groomed to be a champion by the people involved with Rogue Promotions. In fact, the fight card was the second time he was on their main event.
Unfortunately, Gesta was not fully tested but none-the-less he made the fight exciting.
His original opponent, Damian Fuller withdrew because of a shoulder injury. A short-notice substitute was eventually found. His name is Devarise Crayton and he is from Orlando, Florida.
Although Crayton was taller and had a longer reach, the superior skills of Gesta allowed him to land his haymakers which visibly hurt Crayton all through the first round. But Crayton landed a few good ones himself.
In the second round, much to the delight of the crowd, Gesta started chasing Crayton all over the ring. Crayton was on the run and on survival mode as a right hook towards the end of round one visibly shook him. In a few instances, Gesta caught up with him and landed combinations almost at will.
From our vantage point at the ringside photo position, we could see Gesta smile after he lands his combinations. He was on an easy fight and having a ball.
On the third round, Crayton seemed to have run out of gas and could not run around anymore. With that Gesta has a feast landing furious combinations that made Crayton lean on the ropes in an attempt to avoid the many punches delivered by Gesta.
After about a minute of such barrage of punches which Crayton could not answer, referee Joe Cobian waved off the fight and Gesta was declared a TKO winner.
Top photo: Marcus Upshaw (L) delivers the KO punch against Derrik Thomas.
Upshaw wins.
Estrada and Ortega exchange shots
Estrada wins.
Team Gesta.
Photos by Dr Ed de la Vega.
Click here to view a list of other articles written by Ed de la Vega, DDS.
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