By Mario Ortega Jr. (Ringside)-
SACRAMENTO, CALIFORNIA – Tough journeyman Diuhl Olguin held unbeaten local featherweight William Villa to a split decision draw in the six-round main event to cap an eight-fight card at the DoubleTree by Hilton Hotel on Saturday night.
The much shorter Olguin (15-30-6, 10 KOs) of Guadalajara, Jalisco, Mexico gave Villa (6-0-1) Sacramento problems by getting inside the younger fighter’s long reach. Olguin’s lack of height actually proved to be a benefit, as his ducking posture helped to lead some punches thrown by Villa, 127 ½, to stray to the backside of his head, prompting warnings from referee Edward Collantes.
Despite his many fights, Olguin, 127, proved to still have tread on his tires as he maintained a steady pace for the six rounds and his conditioning proved to be every bit as strong as that of the younger Villa. The Sacramento native was unable to keep the Mexican veteran at the end of his jab and keep the distance he needed to give his long arms room to land effectively. What resulted was a hard-to-score inside fight for the six rounds.
In the end, the official scoring was wide in range. Judge Michael Margado had the bout for Villa, 58-56, while Judge Phil DiSousa scored it 59-55 for Olguin and Judge Brian Tsukamoto scored the bout 57-57 even.
Olguin holds a deceiving record, given the long list of undefeated prospects he has been matched with throughout his career. Villa, who ended an eighteen month layoff, took the fight on less than one week’s notice, taking the place of injured Malikai Johnson. “Machine Gun” Johnson addressed his fanbase on Saturday night, vowing to return to the ring after being sidelined with an eye injury that required surgery earlier in the week.
Another local favorite returning to the ring after a long layoff on Saturday, Ruben Torres (5-2, 1 KO) of Sacramento scored a workmanlike four-round unanimous decision over a game opponent in Luis Garcia (3-2, 1 KO) of San Diego, California.
Torres, 155, outworked and outlanded the forward-moving Garcia, 156, for much of the bout. Despite lopsided announced scores of 40-35, 40-36 and 39-37 for Torres, the fight was fairly competitive as the Sacramento native worked off a bit of ring rust early in the bout.
Super bantamweight prospect Irving Xilohua (5-0, 3 KOs) of Stockton, California continued to impress with a one-punch, second-round knockout of Phillip Ramirez (0-1) of Sacramento.
After a measured first round Xilohua, 123, landed a picture-perfect straight right hand from distance that dropped Ramirez, 123, to the canvas. Referee Edward Collantes immediately called a halt to the bout at the 1:33 mark of round two.
Julian Bridges (3-0, 2 KOs) of Antioch, California outboxed Milton Ramirez (1-1) of Sacramento en route to an exciting four-round unanimous decision.
Both Bridges, 140 ¼, and Ramirez, 140, took turns switching from southpaw and orthodox and back over the four rounds. Bridges’ edge in reach and offensive output led to a sweep of the judges’ cards, 40-36.
In a four-round slugfest from start to finish, Mario Alexander (0-1) of Sparks, Nevada appeared to have spoiled the professional debut of Sacramento’s Terrell Glynn (1-0), but the three official scorers wound up seeing it the other way, to the dismay of many of the patrons on hand.
The shorter Alexander, 177, set the distance from the first bell, negating the long reach of the lanky Glynn, 177. Neither fighter may have thrown a jab but the power punches landed with great regularity throughout.
Hernandez, who had a large contingent of supporters in the building, looked to have held an edge in hard landed punches, but came up short on the cards 39-37 three times.
Josias Gonzalez (1-1) of Whittier, California by way of Jalisco, Jalisco, Mexico outworked Aaron Cadena (0-1) of Sacramento over four rounds en route to unanimous decision. Cadena, 153, tried his best to keep pace, but Gonzalez, 153 ½, was the more aggressive and harder puncher throughout, sweeping all three cards, 40-36.
In amateur kickboxing action, Alberto Montano of Sacramento took a three-round unanimous decision over Yusuf Kamara of Antioch and Ermias Jones of Sacramento scored a three-round decision over Everett Alanis of Sacramento to open the evening.
Upper Cut Promotions, promoter of Saturday night’s card, will bring their next event to the Gold Country Casino Resort in Oroville, California on May 27th.
Mario Ortega Jr. can be reached at ortegajr.mario@gmail.com
