Whenever you’re a witness to a memorable fight, you immediately want to run out and tell everyone. The Oscar Godoy versus Joshua “Superman” Marks welterweight match on Friday’s Bobby D Presents show at the Gonzalez Sports Academy in Eastlake was a classic. Marks’ seventh round KO victory had about the same number of plot twists you’d see in a Hollywood thriller.
In Round one it appeared the jab-less Godoy (4-1, 2 KOs) of Watsonville, CA was in trouble against the shorter, more aggressive and muscular Marks (8-3, 8 KOs) of El Centro, CA now training in Grand Junction, Colorado. For the majority of the round, it was one swing and a miss after another for Godoy while the crouching Marks landed jabs to the midsection with an occasional sneaky left hook up top. Then in the closing moments, Godoy landed a volley of punches along with a beautiful straight right to knock Marks off his feet. First round scoring: 10-9 Godoy.
In Round two, Godoy finally started to use his jab which opened things up for him. Marks, the more aggressive of the two, wasn’t exactly winning over the favor of the 1,000 plus patrons, especially after connecting with a rabbit punch and a late hit after the bell which could’ve cost him a point but didn’t. Still, the elusive Mr. Marks did more than enough to win round two. Marks wins 10-9
By round three, the punches were flying all over the place and Godoy startled Marks when landing a beauty of a right uppercut. Still, Marks took round three by countering off each Godoy miss. 10-9 Marks
Round four and five were a repeat of round three but with even more intensity. Godoy and Marks were lunging at each other to land their volleys with Marks being the more accurate and busier of the two. Both rounds four and five awarded to Marks 10-9.
By round six Marks had established his left as the set up punch for the combinations and had Godoy backpedaling. Needing a breather from the pounding, Godoy wisely took a knee. When the action resumed, Marks was again all over him and down went Godoy for a second time. Only the bell prevented a third knockdown. Scoring 10-8 Marks.
After the bell sounded to start round seven, Marks was right back in Gody’s grill pounding away. It appeared it was just a matter of time before referee Pat Russell stepped in to stop the bout.
Then, as if the boxers were following a script from a Rocky movie, back came Godoy. Now it was Godoy chasing after Marks and threatening to put him away. After tiring from throwing what must have been at good fifty punches, Godoy was spent and back came Marks. This time, the head shots taken by Godoy had gone over Russell’s limit and the bout was stopped.
In the evening’s co-main event, National City's Adrian Vargas (5-0, 3 KOs) faced Emmanuel Robles (4-0, 2 KOs) of Imperial Beach. It was your classic match-up of the orthodox KO puncher, Vargas, going up against the southpaw boxer with quick hands, Robles, in a short four rounder.
Since round one was so close, you got to figure the judges scored it in Robles’ favor since he finished the round by landing three unanswered left hands.
Unbeknownst to many, during that opening round, the boxers’ heads clashed and Vargas sustained a nasty gash on his right forehead, a gash that later needed eight stitches to close.
Vargas came back strong in round two to even the score. Even though the majority of his scoring blows were to the midsection, it was this one powerful left hook to the chin that sent Robles flying back into the ropes that got everyone’s attention. Vargas takes Round 2
Robles took round three by being busier and on occasion getting Vargas against the ropes or pinned in a neutral corner to land his flurries. Still, for most of the fight everyone watched and waited as Vargas plodded forward with that right hand cocked, ready to deliver the knockout blow. Round 3 Robles
Round four was similar to Round #1, with no clear advantage shown. With the minuscule difference in power shots thrown and the slight edge in punches landed, it was inevitable that two of the three judges would call the match a draw and they did.
Was it a great match? No. It could have been, if the promoters had asked the local boxing commission to have the bout decided in eight rounds or at least six.
After speaking with a member of the California Athletic Commission, I was told that at this early stage in their careers, with a limited amount of fights, the Commission would have likely turned down such a request.
Also featured on the card was lightweight Pablo “Bronco” Armenta (6-1-1, 2 KOs) of South San Diego going up against Omar Sanchez (0-2-1) of Fairfield, CA.
Beginning in Round one, Armenta, the clear aggressor, took control of the fight by throwing his attention getting jab. On occasion Sanchez would land a few solid combinations but the majority of the damage was being done by Armenta.
After Sanchez went down twice in Round two, referee Pat Russell stopped the bout to have the fight doctor look at a nasty gash over Sanchez’s right eye, a gash that would later need four stitches. After looking over the cut, the doctor recommended the stoppage.
The Pablo Cupul of Merida, Yucatan, Mexico (6-2-0, 4 KOs) versus Raymond “Bad Boy” Chacon (3-1-0) of the Maywood Club Gym in Carson, CA. turned out to be a mismatch.
While Cupul tried his best and demonstrated how tough he is, Chacon basically took him apart, one combination after another.
Not to say it was tiresome, obnoxious (oh, I guess I just did) but one of the gents in the Chacon corner kept yelling “Finish him off!!!! x4”
For future reference, when you shout something like this and the entire room goes eerily silent, it’s a strong indicator that the people around you are not of like mind and what you’re yelling is in poor taste.
In the final match, we had 20 year-old lefty Gabriel Medina of Marrieta, CA making his debut against righty Luis Sanchez (1-6-0) from Fairfield, CA.
In Round one, you could see Sanchez was having problems with Medina’s left. Medina, who has this lunging style, jumped in and out to land his strongest punch.
In Round two, Medina mixed things up a little and varied his set up punch, the left, to follow with a right cross.
After an inauspicious third round, there was a lot activity in the fourth and final round as Sanchez started landing his straight right and tried his best to pull out the late victory. As they say, it was too little, too late.
All in all, it was a great first night of boxing at the Gonzalez Sports Academy facility in East Lake, an upscale neighborhood of Chula Vista, under 20 minutes by car from San Diego’s downtown. The long list of celebrities in attendance would probably bore you to death, so, suffice it to say there were quite a few.
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