KnockOut Kings 2

The Recap

Story by Joe Calvey, Sr.

Photos by Rachel McCarson

KNOCKOUT KINGS 2 delivered the goods and lived up to it’s parking lot hype as San Antonio's very own version of Rocky Balboa once again brought his winning vision of big league professional boxing to San Antonio.

Jesse James Leija, a two time world champion is not just a dreamer though. He works his dreams, hard, just like he did when he traveled the world and took on the best the boxing world had to offer. The promotional company he is a name partner in, Leija-Battah Promotions, was grinding it out every day leading up to the card at  San Antonio's AT&T Center.

KnockOut Kings II was televised to a world wide audience by Showtime Sports making the card much harder to promote because it wasn't blacked out locally. The card’s main promoter, Golden Boy Promotions, possibly the most succesful promotional company in boxing, announced a new Monday night series of fights co-promoted by Leija-Battah to start in September.

Leija-Battah Promotions is lucky to have Mike Battah’s deep pockets as it was forced to pull out all the grass root tricks of the trade for this fight. The talent alone, though tough and deep, was not enough to drive ticket sales. At the first press conference Mike Battah, standing at the Mi Tierra bar mused out loud  "I need to sell 18,000 tickets." He didn’t come close but it wasn’t for a lack of trying. The Express News reported attendance of 8,811.

Early on the promotion seemed snake bit with a main event featuring  Andre Berto, who has been tainted by the scandal of steroids, suspended, technically exonerated and for his association with a known sports cheat. Berto was also on a two fight losing streak. In his most recent loss he was administered a beating by Robert Guerrero who then lost to Floyd Mayweather in a lopsided bout. The more you know about the former two time world champion the less of a draw he is.

Jesus Soto-Karass admits he has not taken his craft all that seriously in the past which resulted in 8 losses. Of course it would be even more damaging for a promoter for Soto-Karass to say he lost 8 times to better fighters. It’s a tough job to sell the public on a bout no one is actually asking for and the KNOCKOUT KINGS franchise could be the way to. As long as nothing gets in the way.

On the eve of LBP’s public announcement their promotional partner Golden Boy Promotions and Floyd Mayweather rocked the boxing world with the announcement Mayweather is giving the fans what they are asking for, a fight with Saul "Canelo" Alvarez. He even set the time and place, Las Vegas Sept. 14, 2013.

Then Golden Boy brought their traveling PR circus to the Alamo. Dutifully LBP put time, money and energy into promoting the Las Vegas event. Some might say KnockOut Kings II was benefited by Mayweather - Canelo press tour but it was minimal at best. Such is life when co-promoting with Golden Boy Promotions perhaps the busiest most successful promotional company ever with as many as 100 events a year being pushed.

Tickets were sold in barbershops and meat markets. Soto-Karass choreographed a breast cancer awareness angle with his bout but Oscar De La Hoya wasted his breath talking about the charitable Haitian Berto. Practically hourly there was texting, telemarketing, Facebooking and Tweeting taking place.

The bonus for the best knockout of the evening dropped from $100,000 KNOCKOUT KINGS I to $10,000 for KNOCKOUT KINGS II. Apparently $14 tickets and public boxing exhibitions in parking lots were not enough to fill the AT&T Center or pay an exciting bonus. Hours before the weigh in boxers on the under card were still trying to boost their income by offering tickets. It would be nice someday to see under card boxers get paid for fighting and not hawking.

On the under card local boxers Joseph "The Mongoose" Rodriguez faced off against Jesse James "The Outlaw" Anguiano. Rodriguez won the fight and remained undefeated. Ringside observers agreed the fight was competitive and close despite Anguiano only winning the final round on one judge’s scorecard.

"The Corpus Christi Kid" Jerry Belmontes (18-2) with 5 KO’s gave away his fight to Andrew Cancio (15-2) with 11KO’s a tough super featherweight from Blythe, CA. One judge was overheard saying "if Belmontes wanted to showcase his ability to take a head shot he succeeded".

In a battle of undefeated welterweight fighters Keith "One Time" Thurman of Clearwater, Florida (21-0) with 19 KO’s dropped Argentina’s Diego Chaves (22-1) with 18 KO’s just :28 seconds into the 10th round to earn the $10,000 bonus. Despite this being a great fight to watch it paled when compared to Figeroa vs. Arakawa. Chaves was dropped with a body shot in the 9th and succumbed to a shot off the top of his forehead. With the win Thurman became the Interim WBA World Welterweight Champion. What is a Interim Champion? It’s boxing’s version of a book mark.

In what could be the best fight in San Antonio since Mike Ayala faced off against Danny "Little Red" Lopez in June of 1979 Weslaco’s unbeaten Omar Figeroa (22-0) with 17 KO’s won the WBC Interim Lightweight World Championship by defeating Japan’s Nohito Arakawa (24-3) with 17 KO’s. Both boxers stood in front of each other from the opening bell and delivered punishing blows to each other. Without any doubt Figeroa won nearly every single exchange and had a dominating score from all three judges. Early on an accidental head butt open a nasty gash on Figeroa’s nose that bled throughout all 12 rounds.

Arakawa (24-3) with 16 KO’s took so much punishment it was a wonder he was still standing at the end of several rounds. Veteran boxing and MMA referees in town for a boxing convention agreed one of the reasons the fight probably wasn’t stopped by veteran Texas referee Laurence Cole was that at the end of nearly every round was that Arakawa grinned and touched gloves with Figeroa as if he was truly enjoying himself. All agreed Cole did a great job in the ring especially when the time keeper didn’t start up the count when he was unable to see that Arakawa was being held up by the ropes. This happened after Figeroa unleashed a short spike driver of a right hand followed by a furious barrage of punches in the 6th round. Showtime viewers may remember the knockdown came moments after commentator Al Bernstein remarked he was surprised Arakawa was still on his feet.

Haiti’s American born 2004 Olympian Andre Berto (28-3) with 22 KO’s opened the door to questions about his diminished capacity as an elite competitor after losing convincingly to Mexico’s Jesus Soto-Karass (28-8) with 18 KO’s. Throughout the fight Berto managed to deliver his left jab but his reflexes looked slow and despite trying to press the action he looked flat footed. By providing Soto-Karass with a ready target and slower counter punching the action was still plentiful.

But with no apparent defensive strategy time was not on Berto’s side despite managing to drop Soto-Karass with a powerful left uppercut to the gut in the 11th round. Berto barely able to get off the corner stool came out in the 12th like a fighter who knows he is behind and needs a knockout. But on this night he found the moderately elusive better conditioned Soto-Karass waiting with a short left hand that would drop Berto and end the fight and potentially Berto’s career.

                    

Don’t expect any more blockbuster fight cards to hit the River City for at least 6 months and likely much longer. The local battle for the boxing fan’s dollar is now going to switch to a weekly televised affair.