In a thrilling and
unusual card for Houston, K-Rich Promotions assembled a collection of Texas and Mexican fighters to
take on fighters from the former Soviet republic of Kazakhstan, in six boxing matches and
one mixed martial arts bout on March 5th of 2010! What
resulted was a series of spectacular brawls!
Zhaksalkov
Zaps Gonzalez!
In the main boxing event, Super Featherweight Adauto Gonzalez of San Luis Potosi, Mexico took on Mirzhan Zhaksalkov of Almaty, Kazakhstan in a bout scheduled for six rounds.
Gonzales came in at 10-7 with 3 KO's and had lost his last two fights going the distance over either six or eight rounds.
Zhaksalkov was undefeated at 8-0 with 4 KO's and
like the rest of his teammates, this was his first fight out of either Kazakhstan or Russia.
But
both fighters in this matchup proved to be highly
skilled and extremely durable, showing good
defensive and lateral movement,
and exchanging multiple head and body shots
throughout the match.
See
round one below!
..
A right hand to the body forced Gonzalez to
take a knee in the third round.
The fighters continued trading through the fourth.
See
round five below!
..
A
short left jab caught Gonzalez off balance in the
sixth round and he suffered a flash knockdown, and
in the end, the scores were 58-56, 58-55 and 58-54
for Zhaksalkov, giving him the unanimous decision!
Akerbaev
Ambushes Villanueva!
Converted MMA fighter Isaac "Hurricane Ike" Villanueva of Houston dropped more than 20 pounds to come in at a trim 188 to face Issa Akberbaev in a scheduled four-rounder.
Villanueva was 3-1 in mixed martial arts competition and said before the match that he believed he had a proper game plan of changing angles, to go with his heavy hands, in taking on Akberbaev, who came into the match at 4-0 with 2 KO's.
It was also Akberbaev's first fight outside of his home country.
But this
would largely prove to be a test of
Villanueva's brute force against the
Kazakh's superior boxing ability.
See round
one!
..
Villanueva
landed with a series of right hand uppercuts
in the second round, while Akerbaev
connected with several overhand rights.
A combination
from Akerbaev hurt Villanueva toward the end
of the round.
See Round
three
below!
..
Finally in
the fourth round the referee ended up
deducting two points from Villanueva for
losing his mouthpiece, after he had done so
several times throughout the match.
In the end
the point deductions did not affect the
final outcome, as two scores were 38-35 and
the third was 39-34, all for Akerbaev.
Rangel Rattles Kaliev!
Junior welterweight Julio Cesar Rangel of Dallas 5(4)-4(1)-0 fought Borik Kaliev of Almaty, Kazakhstan 7(3)-0(0)-0.
Rangel was coming off a four-round split decision
win over Milton Ramos in Dallas on October 10th, while Kaliev last won a six-round unanimous decision over an 8-1-1 Kazakh fighter in his home country in November.
See round one!
..
The second round
began relatively even as Rangel continued to
establish his jab and show that he had the strength
to withstand the body shot blasts from Kaliev.
Rangel opened with a
solid left hook in round three, while a straight
right from Kaliev hurt Rangel.
Rangel continued the
body attack and the fighters traded bombs in the
fourth round.
Rangel began to pull
away in round five as he landed two looping right
hands to the head, followed by a left-right
combination to the face.
By the sixth round
Rangel was largely chasing Kaliev around the ring.
Two judges scored the
bout 58-56 for Rangel, while the third had it even,
giving Rangel the majority decision.
Sybykov Smacks
Feliciano!
Super bantamweight
Alberto "La Pulga" Feliciano of Houston of Edinburg, Texas
(2-0-1) took on Tursynbek Sybykov in the opening
bout of the evening.
Round One!
..
The much stronger
southpaw Sybykov continued his dominance into round
two, breaking down his opponent.
Sybokov was making
his pro debut.
Sybykov continued to
pound Feliciano almost at will through the third
round, with the Houstonian on the verge of being
stopped, until finally after the end of the third
the referee wisely put an end to the contest.
Nazarov Rips Rocky!
The main event saw Houston's Rocky Long fighting Kazakh Champion Ardak Nazarov
in a scheduled three-round mixed martial arts match.
Like most of the fighters from his home country, Nazarov brought with him a high level of intense physical conditioning, extreme toughness and a granite right hand.
One source listed his record as 4-1-1 with three submissions and a TKO.
Long brought a much more extensive history of some 45 pro fights
with a roughly even number of wins and losses, recently winning the URC featherweight title
in Houston in a five-round decision over Chris Manuel.
Long, who normally fights at 145 lbs, stepped up to 155 for this match, and said before the match he expected no problems trading bombs with Nazarov.
"Everyone says they want to stand with me but once they feel one of my punches they always end up going to the ground," Long said. "It doesn't matter to me, I really do everything."
An early right hand
from Long sent Nazarov to the canvas, which resulted
in some brief grappling.
The two fighters
exchanged shots throughout much of the first round
until Nazarov finally caught Long with the bomb that
ended it.
The referee jumped in
to stop the match at 2:27 of the first round.
Nazarov with Promoter
Ken Richardson!
Castaneda
Crushes Gomez!
In a contest of two
"local" fighters, middleweights Fernando Castaneda, originally of Aguascalientes, Mexico battled Martin Gomez.
Castaneda came in at 5-4 with 2 KO's, and had won his last four fights straight, most recently registering a 5th round TKO over Josh Burns in Stafford on November 19th.
See round one below!
..
Gomez landed
several shots in the first two rounds, but
overall Castaneda was simply the much
stronger fighter, landing multiple shots to
the body and a big overhand right to the
head in the second round.
Castaneda
continued his dominance into round three,
when another overhand right seriously hurt
Gomez, and referee Sammy Garza stopped the
fight at 1:28 of the third round.
Garcia
Assaults Adamev!
Super featherweight Gill Garcia of Houston (1-0) faced Abzal Adambaev of of Zhezkazgan, Kazakhstan (3-0, 2 KO's).
Garcia showed
himself to be the stronger of the two
fighters from the outset.
Round One
..
The southpaw
Adamev continued to show lateral movement
into the second round.
Adamev had
suffered a cut on his right eye and was
warned for holding on the back of the head.
Garcia landed
a big right to Adamev's jaw at the end of
round two.
The fighters
traded heavy shots into round three and
Garcia again landed big toward the end of
the round, making Adamev look as though he
was about the quit the match.
The referee
finally deducted a point from Adamev for
holding behind the head in the fourth round
and the contest escaclated into a fantastic
slugfest, with each exhausted fighter
throwing and landing thunderous shots.
One judge
scored the match 40-36, while another had it
40-35, while the third saw it 39-37, all for
Garcia, gving him the unanimous decision.
