Brandon Gonzales received an eight round split decision over Ossie Duran in a Middleweight bout at Ballys in Atlantic City.
It was Duran who controlled the action off of his jab that set up a variety of punches that ranged from flush overhand rights to good body work. Duran was not known a left hook artist actually landed a decent amount of those punches. Gonzales did have some solid moments in the bout but they were sandwiched in between the more consistent output of Duran.
Gonzales, 161 1/2 lbs of Sacramento, CA won by scores of 77-75 on two cards and is now 15-0-1. Duran, 161 lbs of Accra, Ghana won the third card by a 78-74 tally but is now 26-9-2.
“We expected an all-out brawl coming in,” said Gonzales. “The 10-month layoff didn’t make it any easier. Virgil (Hunter) said I had to step it up those last three rounds and that’s exactly what I did. I listened to my corner and stayed compose and let my hands go first. I think it was a great victory tonight. I hired the best trainer in boxing in Virgil Hunter. We pulled it out.”
Artemio Reyes scored an eight round unanimous decision over previous undefeated and former U.S. Olumpian Javier Molina in a Welterweight bout.
It was evident from the second round on that it was going to be a rough night for Molina as Reyes continuously beat Molina to the punch. The two waged war inside for just about the whole fight where Reyes landed some hard body shots and was diverse with his attack by landing over hand rights and solid uppercuts. Molina fought well but Reyes was more effective in this active fight.
Reyes, 146 lbs of Colton, CA won by scores of 78-74; 77-75 and 77-75 and is now 14-1. Molina, 147 lbs of Norwalk, CA is now 9-1.
Reyes’ father has been in a coma since a tragic car accident in 2008 left him in a vegetative state. “Fighting 4 Pops” is his life statement and those words are written into his trunks.
After his emotional win, Reyes said of the fight, “We trained hard, ridiculously hard. It was insane, man. I didn’t stop punching the entire time. We knew it was going to be a long fight, you know, eight rounds. It was a good fight. We trained hard.”
