Sacramento’s Fighting Pride Come Out Victorious

By Mario Ortega Jr. (ringside)

Sacramento fighters at just about every stage of game displayed their talents and took home victories Thursday night at the Red Lion Hotel in Sacramento, California. The card featured two local up and coming stars, a recent top contender and a cagey veteran out to prove he still could pull out a win.

In the six-round light heavyweight main event, Otis Griffin (19-3-2, 7 KOs) of Sacramento, winner of the Next Great Champ reality series in 2004, scored a decisive unanimous decision win over game journeyman Carl Cockerham (12-18-3, 4 KOs) of Las Vegas, Nevada. The first round featured solid back-and-forth action and proved to be the most even round of the fight. From the second round on, Griffin controlled the action by using his size and strength advantages to bully Cockerham around the ring and press him to the ropes. Often times Cockerham, 173, would crouch low to avoid Griffin flurries, but the former reality star would in turn lean on him and get his shots in anyway. Griffin, 177, would stun Cockerham late in the fourth with a left-right hook combination that sent him reeling to the ropes. Luckily for Cockerham, the bell would ring before Griffin could really follow up. Griffin would continue to dominate the action for the remaining two rounds, putting extra pressure on his opponent in an attempt to close things with a knockout victory. Cockerham proved to be durable and even landed a strong right hook to give Griffin something to think about late in the sixth. Two judges scored the bout 59-55, with one scoring it 60-54. 15rounds.com agreed with the third judge, scoring the bout a shutout for Griffin, 60-54.

“Carl is a tough guy,” Griffin said of his opponent shortly after the bout. “I mean, Mario Veit couldn’t even knock him out, so that says something. He also doesn’t throw enough shots to get knocked out. It is hard to knockout a guy who is always coming in with his guard up.” Griffin also took time to discuss his boxing future. “I want to get three wins here in Sacramento, and then start getting in the mix with the bigger names. I want to take my time, it should happen this year,” said Griffin. “I am gonna stay at light heavyweight and get all those belts. Right now I would like to fight Tavoris Cloud, who has my old [WBO NABO] belt that I never lost. He has the belt, but I think he should give me that chance. He didn’t beat the man, he beat the man next to the man.”

In the six-round cruiserweight co-main event, Michael Simms (20-9-1, 13 KOs) of Sacramento notched his elusive 20th career victory with a close unanimous decision win over former title challenger Derrick Harmon (25-7, 12 KOs) of Las Vegas, Nevada. Simms opened things up quick with a basic one-two combination that sent Harmon down to the canvas. It looked briefly like it may be a short night for the former amateur star. Harmon, 196, slowly regained his legs, covering up while Simms unloaded as much of his arsenal as he could for the remainder of the round. Going for the knockout in the first would ultimately slow Simms, 201 ¾, down to where Harmon could compete with him. In the second Harmon would outscore the winded Simms in punches thrown, but really did not have much behind most of them. Simms would continue to land the more telling shots throughout the bout, but often times just not enough of them to win rounds. Harmon found great success from the third round on, keeping his hands moving while Simms was satisfied covering up. It was apparent, especially in the case of Harmon, that time has slowed these two veterans down a bit. Often times Harmon’s punches were thrown slow and without much force, but Simms would do little in return. Simms, whose conditioning has come into question from time to time, awoke in the sixth round to land enough telling blows to possibly get the round and the six-round win. Two judges scored the bout 58-56, while the third judge scored the bout 57-56 to give Simms the unanimous decision victory. 15rounds.com also scored the bout 57-56 for Simms. The win ends a five-bout skid for Simms, dating back to a 2005 eight-round decision loss to Marco Huck in Germany. Shortly after the fight, Harmon made clear he felt he had earned the victory. "I was landing more punches. He dropped me the first round, but after that, he basically didn't do anything," said Harmon. The bout was Harmon’s first in two years and only his third since December of 2003.

In the two four-round bouts on the card, the roughly 500 patrons on hand got a glimpse of Sacramento’s boxing future. Middleweight Brandon Gonzales (4-0, 4 KOs) of Sacramento got his first professional test in Mike Alexander (1-2-2) of Antioch, California, surviving a first-round knockdown to score a second-round knockout. Gonzales, 160, took charge early in the first, backing Alexander up with the early barrage. Alexander, 158, was able to turn the tables midway through the round, landing a solid left that dropped Gonzales to a knee. Gonzales was able to clear his head pretty quickly, and by round’s end was back in control of the bout. Gonzales came out strong again in the second, perhaps to even the score after suffering the knockdown in the previous round. Gonzales landed a couple solid hooks, with Alexander’s back against the ropes, that brought up his opponent’s defensive guard. Gonzales seized the opening, landing a vicious left hook to the body that put Alexander down and out at 2:50 of the second round.

Sacramento’s Stan Martyniouk (3-0, 1 KO) notched his first professional knockout with an eye-opening 30 second destruction of Matt Mahler (0-1) of Stockton, California in a super featherweight contest scheduled for four rounds. Mahler, trained by former Sacramento heavyweight Gilbert Martinez, came out aggressively to open the bout, which ended up playing right into Martyniouk’s hands. After blocking most of his opponent’s wild flurry with his gloves, Martyniouk, 132, backed him up with a combination of his own. With Mahler, 130 ½, in retreat, Martyniouk stepped forward with a right hook that ended matters less than a minute into the bout. The half minute performance falls just short of the Red Lion Hotel record for quickest knockout, accomplished by Martyniouk’s former amateur teammate Brandon Gonzales with a 22 second kayo in February.

A scheduled eight-round super middleweight rematch between Ernesto Castaneda (10-7-1, 4 KOs) and Christian Cruz (12-9-1, 10 KOs) was scraped earlier in the week. The two Sacramento crowd favorites originally met at the Red Lion Hotel in February, with Castaneda earning the six-round unanimous decision. The replacement bout was scratched the day of the card. Well regarded former amateur standout Geraldo Lopez of Vacaville, California was set to make his professional debut against Taron Scott of Stockton, California in a four-round welterweight fight, but Scott failed a portion of his medical examination.

Nasser Niavaroni’s Uppercut Promotions will return to stage a dual boxing and mixed martial arts card at the Red Lion Hotel on Saturday, July 12th.