April 5th at Cache Creek Casino and Resort in Brooks, CA, Don Chargin Promotions and Paco Presents Boxing returns to the resort and casino after six months with an action packed card. Though the matchups have yet to be finalized, the majority of fighters who frequently fight with in the promotion have been announced. As of yet there is no official headliner.
The night will feature two different regional champions as the IBA will be well represented when Middleweight IBA champ, Paul Mendez will be in action with a 10 round affair. Mendez, who is coming off his marquee win which was televised from Salinas, CA in February against Raul Casarez on Fox Sports 1. Mendez, who is flirting with the top ten of American middleweights, is looking to put together some dominant wins to negotiate a big fight in the coming year. Mendez, who fights out of Salinas, CA out of the Sam Garcia Boxing Gym is trained by Max Garcia and his son, Sam and managed by “Team Mom” Kathy Garcia. Mendez sees the future as promising especially after spending his last few camps up in Big Bear, CA with top middleweight Gennady Golovkin.
Despite the lack of activities in Big Bear, CA, Mendez has found that the sparring altitude has helped take his game to the next level. It is sparring with Golovkin that some have alleged may have been what took out Mendez’s legs in his close fight, which was officially scored a draw against Louis Rose. Essentially, Mendez is close to being a regular on television and merits attention, and is a combination of boxing with accurate power punches that accumulate.
IBA junior bantamweight champion Bruno Escalante will also be back in action. Escalante is a star in the making as he is selling out venues throughout the Bay Area along with his t-shirt that adorns his name “Aloha Kid” being sold at stands. The reason you should be looking at Escalante is he is a man who may face Zou Shiming down the line. Until then Escalante has to do what he has continued to do, knockout foes and have trouble finding opponents since foes are not eager to fight Escalante at this point, as they see it as having high risk and low reward.
Escalante, the 2013 Northern California Boxer of the Year, fought at the end of February, ending the fight in the final seconds of the first round with a body shot that badly hurt Lorenzo Trejo. Escalante is an explosive, all action fighter, who will engage his foe at all times, but over the past year is showing much improvement under the tutelage of Brian Schwartz and Mike Bazzel of Undisputed Boxing Gym, which is a problem for the rest of the division.
One of the biggest prospects in Northern California, Guy Robb, recently signed with superb manager Herb Stone and will be back in action. Robb is best known for nearly beating Joel Diaz Jr. in a ShoBox fight early in 2012. Robb, whose last fight in July saw him knocking out Roberto Ventura in the third round, is looking for a highly active year after a very long layoff since fighting last summer and returning early spring, having taken barely any damage in his past fight.
