Photos by; John Pinto

Thompson Boxing Promotions hosted their April installment of Professional Boxing at the Ontario Doubletree Hotel on April 19. Billed as “Locked and Loaded”, a total of 5 bouts of differing weight classes, that varied in their intensity, were presented to those in attendance. An almost “full-house” of lively boisterous fans were on hand to enjoy all of the action.

The opening bout of the evening featured the “Pro Debut” of two contestants in the Lightweight Division, Chris “The Irish Mexican” Crowley (134.7 lbs., Brighton, England, Pro Debut) and Davonte “D-Mac” McCowen (131.1 lbs., Lancaster, California, Pro Debut). Young McCowen is trained by WestCoastBoxing.com’s owner and Editor, “Boxing Don” Dinkins. It was a “feeling-out” process at the beginning of the opening round, but this soon changed. Crowley soon unleashed a wicked body attack upon McCowen, and in this writer’s opinion, took the opening round. But McCowen was not yet finished. In the second, he made quite a comeback, and in the opinion of this writer, won the round, thus evening the score to this point. The remaining two rounds became a non-stop, toe -to-toe battle to the end, with both fighters having their moments. While one of the judges had the bout scored 39-37, the other two scored the bout 38-38, the result being a Majority Draw, but a very exciting opening bout, nonetheless.

Next on the program was a scheduled 4 Round contest in the Heavyweight Division, between Thomas “The Conqueror” Hawkins (253.6 lbs., Houston, Texas, 4-3, 1 KO) and Oscar Torrez (214.4 lbs., Rialto, California, 4-0, 1 KO). As usually happens with heavyweights, this contest started at a slower pace than the opening contest. The better shots were definitely landed by Torrez in the opening round. While Hawkins had his moments in the second round, Torrez continued to dominate the action. In spite of a game effort by Hawkins, Torrez continued to dominate the action in the third round, landing some “bombs”. Torrez had Hawkins reeling in the fourth round, from a flurry of punches, and at 1:20 of the round, Referee Tony Crebs had seen enough and called a halt to the contest. Torrez won by a KO.

A 4 Round Welterweight battle followed between Daniel Perales (146.9 lbs., Monterrey, Mexico, 10-16, 5 KOs) and Luis Lopez (145.3 lbs., Corona, California, 5-0, 3 KOs). The two combatants went right to work in he first round, but Luis Lopez got the best of the exchanges. Perales came out swinging in the second round, but the better shots were definitely landed by Lopez. Though Perales continued his game effort in the third round, Luis Lopez continued his domination of the fight, and continued it into the fourth and final round. All three judges scored the contest 40-36, in favor of Luis Lopez, the Winner by a Unanimous Decision.

The 4^th fight of the evening was a 4 Round Super Middleweight battle between Sergio “Phoenix” Ramirez (163.3 lbs., Tijuana, Mexico, 6-5, 6 KOs) and Richard “Cool Breeze” Brewart (156.7 lbs., Rancho Cucamonga, California, 4-0, 2 KOs). Brewart dominated the action from the opening bell in Round 1. Though he slowed his pace down in the second round, Brewart continued to dominate contest. In the third round, Brewart unleashed a vicious body attack upon Ramirez, and continued to dominate in the fourth and final round. It was no surprise that all three judges scored the contest 40-36, in favor of Brewart, the Winner by a Unanimous Decision.

Before the Main Event of the evening commenced, two special introductions took place. The first was of Jose Sanchez, who was scheduled to fight on this evening’s card but had to “pull-out” of the contest due to an injury, and the second was actually a “Final 10 Count” for the late Dr. Joe Noriega, a Thompson Boxing “Regular” for many years, who had recently passed away. Dr. Noriega’s tribute was followed by the singing of the National Anthem, by Amanda Reeves.

It was time for the Main Event of the evening, a 10 Round Featherweight contest between Jose “Hollywood” Estrella (125.7 lbs., Tijuana, Mexico, 20-15-1, 14 KOs), and local favorite, Erick “All American Boy” Ituarte (125.3 lbs., Santa Ana, California, 20-1-1, 3 KOs). The fight began with a feeling-out process in round one. They stepped up the pace in round 2, but neither clearly dominated, in this writer’s opinion. The pace got busier in Round 3, but still neither appeared to dominate. Ituarte unleashed a wicked body attack in the fourth round, but Estrella did not “give any ground”, and it continued to be a “back-and-forth” contest. Round 5 was a duplicate of Round 4. Though the sixth round started somewhat slower, the pace soon quickened and became a toe-to-battle as the previous rounds. The contest remained this way through round nine, though it appeared that Estrella was hit with a low blow at the end of Round 7, but he was able to continue. By Round 9, Estrella appeared to have won over some of the crowd, and it appeared to this writer, that he had won some of the later rounds of the contest. After the customary, touching of the gloves to begin the tenth round, Ituarte “got on the bicycle” for most of the round. It was a battle to the end, and Estrella was really forcing the action. The judges scored the contest 98-92, 100-89, and 100-89, all in favor of Ituarte, declared the Winner by a Unanimous Decision.

And the April 2019 Installment of Thompson Boxing Promotions came to an end. Their next show will be on May 10, at their Corona location.

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