04.03.06 – By Kent Appel @Ringside- “King” Sam Soliman of Melbourne, Australia stepped in on Friday March 3, 2006 to headline a seven bout card at the Pechanga Resort and Casino in Temecula, California as a replacement for former welterweight champion Vernon Forrest who was injured during training and who had to cancel fighting Raul Munoz of Leon, Mexico. The program was promoted by Goossen Tutor Promotions and part of it was broadcast live on Fox Sports Network’s Best Damn Fight Night Period..
Soliman fought Munoz instead and he did his usual job of throwing “millions” of unorthodox punches from all angles per round to gain the victory in his first fight since a fine losing effort to Ronald “Winky” Wright in December 2005. Soliman won by a sixth round TKO and he improves his record to 32-8, 13 by KO while Munoz falls back to 17-8, 14 by KO. Soliman weighed in at 159 pounds while Munoz tipped the scales at 154 pounds.
I remember watching the broadcast when Soliman fought current pound for pound contender for best boxer in the world, Wright, and hearing the announcers, among them renowned trainer Emanuel Steward, saying round after round that there was no way that Soliman could keep up the pace of throwing so many punches per round and while I agreed with them that Wright won the fight by landing the harder more effective punches in most rounds, I knew that Wright was in for a hard fight and I was not surprised as Steward and the other announcers seemed to be that Wright looked and felt like he had been in a tough fight after Wright had looked so good in wins over fellow stars “Sugar” Shane Mosley and Felix “Tito” Trinidad. Nobody should ever underestimate Sam Soliman as no middleweight in the world can assume they will be safe in the ring with him.
I saw Soliman winning every round of the fight up until the time of the stoppage at 1:49 of the sixth round when he hurt Munoz with a combination of punches while Munoz was up against the ropes and while the live crowd booed the stoppage, it was a good decision by the referee as Munoz was not responding and he could have been badly injured if he was allowed to continue.
Soliman doesn’t really have a huge punch but an accumulation of punches is what did the job of accomplishing the technical knockout of Munoz. Munoz was game but Soliman would just not let him rest for even one second and on this night that was a hard hurdle to overcome.
In the ten round heavyweight CO feature fight, long time contender Kirk Johnson of Dallas, Texas battled Javier Mora of Anaheim, California. Mora defeated Kirk Johnson by a TKO at 1:53 of the seventh round and he improves his record to 20-2-1, 18 by KO while Kirk Johnson’s record is now 36-3, 26 by KO. Kirk Johnson weighed in at 245 pounds while Mora was 232 pounds.
Kirk Johnson started out fast in the first round and he appeared he wanted to get Mora out of there early but Mora hung in there tough and after several rounds of Johnson’s domination he began to find the range in round number five when he hurt Johnson with a combination to the head.
The tide was turning in the fight as Mora picked up where he left off in round number six by again hurting Johnson with another combination to the head but then Johnson fought back late in the round by shaking up Mora with a hard combination to the head of Mora.
Johnson continued his comeback through most of the abbreviated seventh and final round when at 1:53 of the round, the fighters feet got tangled up together. Johnson tried to step away from Mora but he instead ended up falling hard to the canvas and he dislocated his right knee and he was unable to continue.
Although it was ruled Mora won by a technical knockout, Johnson was beaten as much by an unfortunate accident as he was by Mora. Earlier in the seventh and final round Johnson had almost slipped and he complained about a slippery ring floor and this ring floor likely was the cause of his falling at the end of the fight as Mora didn’t land a punch to put him down and the referee ruled that there was no knockdown.
That is not to say that Mora didn’t have a good chance of winning the fight if Johnson had not fell as he did shake up Johnson in rounds six and seven and he was coming on strong after losing the first four rounds. However, I saw Johnson as being ahead in the fight at the time of the stoppage and two of the three judges saw Johnson as leading in the fight by scores of 59 to 55 and 58 to 56. The third judge saw the fight as even, 57 to 57.
This fight is an excellent candidate for a rematch as even though it was a huge win for Mora, there are some doubts as to how the outcome would have been if Johnson had not been injured.
Enrique Ornelas of La Habra, California fought Darnell Boone of Youngstown, Ohio in a middleweight fight scheduled for eight rounds. Ornelas, 160 1/2 pounds, was the victor by unanimous decision by the judges’ scores of 79 to 73, 77 to 75, and 77 to 75 and his record improves to 22-2, 14 by KO while Boone, 159 1/2 pounds, is now 10-4-1, 4 by KO. This fight was highly competitive but Ornelas landed the harder cleaner blows throughout most of the bout.
In a eight round Jr. welterweight bout, Lorenzo Reynolds of Saginaw, Michigan, a former national Golden Gloves champion, defeated Roberto Valenzuela of Sonora, Mexico by a unanimous decision. Reynolds, 141 pounds, improves his record to 13-0, 6 by KO while Valenzuela, also 141 pounds, steps down to 15-23-1, 15 by KO. Reynolds, a southpaw, boxed well behind an excellent right jab and he piled up enough points to win by a fairly comfortable margin by the judges scores of 80 to 72, 80 to 72, and 78 to 74.
In a heavyweight fight scheduled for six rounds, Chris Arreola of Riverside, California went up against Curtis Taylor of Atlanta, Georgia. Arreola, 245 pounds, came out of top over Taylor, 251 pounds, by a first round knockout. With the win Arreola ups his record to 14-0, 12 by KO while Taylor slides to 13-16-1, 7 by KO. Arreola went right after Taylor from the opening bell and he never let Taylor get into the fight, which ended at the 2:28 mark of the very first round.
In a six round light heavyweight fight, John Johnson of Batesville, Mississippi fought Juan Carlos Sanchez of Los Mochis, Mexico. In somewhat of an upset, Sanchez was the winner by a unanimous decision by scores of 59 to 55, 59 to 55, and 58 to 56. His record is now 24-16-3, 16 by KO while John Johnson dips to 10-1, 9 by KO. Weights, John Johnson 171 pounds and Sanchez 168 1/2 pounds. This fight reminded me of Rocky Balboa of the Rocky movies but in this one there were two Rockys. Sanchez and Johnson are both fairly short for light heavyweights and they are both southpaws with a lot of heart. They battled it out from the beginning of the fight without much let up and I didn’t see a clear winner.
Finally, in a heavyweight bout scheduled for four rounds, Teke Oruh of Las Vegas, Nevada took on David Johnson of Los Angeles, California. Oruh was the winner by a unanimous decision by scores of 38 to 36, 38 to 37, and 38 to 35. He improves his record to 10-0-1, 5 by KO while David Johnson slips to 4-18-4, 0 by KO. Oruh weighed in at 257 1/2 pounds while David Johnson was 257 pounds.