(Image from National Golden Gloves)
The Regional Golden Gloves event included other non-tournament bouts that brought excitement and a preview to the future of our region's amateur boxing. There were six junior division (16 and under) bouts along with a female bout.
Two female bouts didn't happen as one had two boxers from the same gym where the only match ups that could be found for their weight class and experience. Melissa Macias (105 lbs) and Nuvia Guerra are both of the Bad Boyz Boxing club from Garden City.
The other female bout was ruled a no-show in favor of Cheyenne McKinney of the Reed Foundation from Tulsa, Oklahoma. Video of her story in boxing could be found in this link. It was unfortunate that the fans weren't able to see her in action but there was one other female bouts that did go on.
Marian Kelly Morales (120 lbs) of the Salina Underdogs from Salina won a close decision over Itzel Alvidraz of the Bad Boyz Boxing club. The match was close but Marian pulled it off with clean straight punches to get the points. (View videos Round 1, Round 2, Round 3, and decision).
Ricardo Aldaba vs Jayce Morales in the 3rd round (WichitaBoxing)
Junior division
In the 65 lbs weight class, Matthew Barker of Villa Boxing Club from Wichita and Lonnie Lucero, Jr. of Garden City Boxing club are fairly well acquainted with one another.
Lonnie shows great fluid movements in his footwork and counter punches. He's a young one to look for in years to come. Matthew has shown a lot of improvements since his last couple of bouts. He has been able to keep his aggression up with his punches looking more sharp and effective.
Lonnie was able to earn a win by decision as this wasn't an easy bout for neither of the two. These two young boxers may have started a very interesting rival. (View videos Round 1, Round 2, Round 3, and decision.)
There were two well matched bouts in the 80 lbs class. The first bout resulted in Cesarso Morales of the Salina Underdogs winning by decision over Julian Najera of the Bad Boyz Boxing club. Cesarso was very effective in using his longer reach by bouncing in and out between his combination punches. Julian was persistent in putting the pressure on Cesarso but wasn't able to get inside the taller opponent.
Learning to cut the ring and slip inside punches against a taller opponent can be taught but it is mostly learned over time by ring experience. These two young boxers have time on their side to hone their skills for a promising future in the sport. (View videos Round 1, Round 2, Round 3, and decision.)
The second bout resulted in Jorge Romero of Villa Boxing club from Wichita winning by decision over Aidan Almaraz of Bad Dog Boxing from Wichita. Jorge, a southpaw, was very effective in controlling the bout with his jabs and by keeping his distance with his light footwork. Aidan wasn't able to time the taller opponent but he was able to land some counter punches coming out of his defensive posture. Aidan was warned by the referee for not keeping his head up.
The worst thing a boxer could do against a taller opponent is to face down because punches can't be seen thus not allowing you to defend one self at all. A boxer would need to hold his gloves high and use the forearms as a defense to straight punches. Moving side to side and down and up behind the defense is effective to avoid hooks and loaded straight punches. (View videos Round 1, Round 2, Round 3, and decision.)
The 100 lbs weight class for the junior division was between Ricardo Aldaba of Villa Boxing and Jayce Morales of Bad Boyz Boxing club. Ricardo's counter punching and footwork enabled him to win by decision over the taller Jayce. The rounds of the bout would start off with Jayce throwing non-stop punches initiating Ricardo to react with non-stop punches as well. Ricardo was able to gain his composure and bounced away keeping his distance from Jayce.
As the taller boxer, Jayce didn't use his reach advantage because he didn't bend at the knees when throwing his punches. A taller boxer would want to bend at his knees to use the length of his reach; punching at a downward angle will cut the reach distance. Overall, this was a very exciting match to watch and for boxers to learn from. (View videos Round 1, Round 2, Round 3, and decision.)
The 178 lbs weight class for the junior division, the two young giants, was between Leobardo Amdrade, Jr. of Bad Dog Boxing and Brandon Wills of Owasso Boxing Club from Owasso, Oklahoma. Brandon pulled a close decision win over Leobardo in an exciting match.
Brandon landed some clean effective punches while Leobardo took on the professional style of working the inside body shots and hooks. Both boxers showed great fortitude and these two young 'giants' may the future of our regions' heavyweight class. (View videos Round 1, Round 2, Round 3, and decision.)
Randall Blankenship vs Adam Kennedy in 2nd round (WichitaBoxing)
Novice division
The novice boxers lack the experience to qualify themselves as an open boxer. They do not advance to the national tournament but are recognized as the winner of the regional tournament. In most cases, the winner of the novice Golden Gloves tournament may qualify them as an open boxer.
Many junior division boxers would skip the novice division to the open master's division when they reach the age of 17. However, the novice class prepares many older boxers for the open competition protecting them from overly matched bouts as they're gaining ring experience.
Starting off in the lighter welterweight (141 lbs) class, DeMarco McCoy of Tulsa Boxing won by decision over Jorge Zuniga of Hutchinson Boxing. DeMarco has a tremendous reach advantage and height over Jorge but Jorge was able to take the fight to DeMarco. Jorge was able to stay out of DeMarco's range but didn't attempt a lot of inside attacks to gain some scoring punches.
DeMarco was able to keep his distance and make the most of his reach. Both of these boxers show great promises for the future of the light welterweight class in our region. DeMarco will advance to tonight's final bout. (View videos Round 1, Round 2, Round 3, and decision.)
The 147 lbs is the traditional welterweight class for boxing but has been changed to 152 lbs in the amateurs. However, since this is a novice division the weight class was made for this bout between Mike Maldonado of Rat Pack Boxing from Lawton, Oklahoma and Jeff Humboldt of Bad Dog Boxing from Wichita, Kansas.
The bout started off with Mike stunning Jeff with a left hook but Jeff was able to recover before the referee was able to catch him for the standing 8 count. Jeff was the aggressor throughout the bout and Mike was able to catch him with some great counter punches. The bout ended up in a close decision win for Jeff. (View videos Round 1, Round 2, Round 3, and decision.)
The welterweight (152 lbs) bout resulted in an exciting and close decision win for Dylan Lewis of Owasso Boxing Club from Owasso, Oklahoma over Aaron Faust of Ghost Dog Boxing club from Tulsa, Oklahoma. Aaron started off the first round overwhelming Dylan with his flurry of punches handing him two standing 8 counts.
Aaron took the first round. In the second round, Dylan came back landing some timely counter punches and returning a standing 8 count to Aaron. Dylan was able to take the second round. The third round was very close but Dylan was able to pull it off with some effective counter punches. (View videos Round 1, Round 2, Round 3, and decision.)
The novice division ended at the super heavyweight (201+ lbs) with Randall Blankenship of Tulsa Boxing stopping Adam Kennedy of Bad Boyz Boxing club from Garden City. The bout was a medical stoppage in the second round as the ringside doctor made the call for the safety of the boxer.
Randall has an enormous height and reach advantage against the shorter Adam Kennedy. Randall's power was proven too much for Adam. The bout started off in the first round with a standing 8 count to Adam Kennedy and it didn't seem like this bout was going to turn around. (View videos Round 1, Round 2, and Winner announced.)
The novice division showcased some great prospects for the future of the open division. Next year's Regional Golden Gloves will be more competitive if these boxers continue with the sport.
Tonight will feature other non-tournament bouts of which will include Nico Hernandez of 316 Boxing from Wichita. Nico is the four time National Silver Gloves Champion and he is definitely a boxer to watch out for as a possible future Olympian!
(Photos will follow and videos of every bout can be found on YouTube by following the link below)
For other Kansas boxing news visit Front Page Boxing Kansas.
For boxing videos visit and subscribe to Wichita Boxing Channel on YouTube.
Follow on Twitter by clicking on the link above.
Comments