Bruno Escalante capped off an impressive 2013 with a title. Escalante secured the IBA Jr. Bantamweight title as he earned a majority decision over Mike Ruiz with scores of 95-95, 98-92 and 97-93. Escalante, who fought in front of a sellout crowd, found himself in the midst of his toughest fight of the year. After four rounds, the fight seemed to be dead even. Ruiz, who seemed in control in round five, saw the fight slip away as one punch seemed to change the course of the fight.
Escalante landed a straight left, the punch that left blood on press row, as it squirted out of Ruiz’s nose. It also moved Ruiz back and shifted the momentum Ruiz had up until that point. The pacing of the fight was swinging in favor of Ruiz as he began to plough forward and force Escalante onto the ropes, but after the fifth round, Ruiz never could really get the fight back to where he wanted it to be fought – on the ropes.
Escalante seemed to dictate the pacing of the fight. The fight, for the most part, was fought on Escalante’s terms, in the middle of the ring. For Escalante, the win puts him in the running to be a fighter who gets tossed around for big fights in 2014, as his five fights this year consisted of two main event showings (one of which being a title win) and three co-main event outings.
Chicas and Pinell Gain Stunning KO Wins
Jonathan Chicas, who recently moved his strength and conditioning program to the Undisputed Boxing Gym to work with Michael Bazzel, seemed to have paid off. Chicas’ first 1-2 combo floored the tough Rodolfo Armenta, who has been known for his early knockouts. Chicas smelled blood and responded accordingly as he finished off Armenta quickly and only minutes later the stoppage came at 1:12 of the very first round.
Ricardo Pinell also scored a knockout victory, though Pinell needed two rounds against Arturo Brambilla. Pinell, who hurt Brambilla, said after the fight, “I didn’t want to walk into anything I didn’t see coming.” Pinell, who suffered a knockout loss in his last fight, said it was a combination of his last fight and his personality that had him waiting for the perfect moment to throw his counter punch and Brambila into the ropes. Brambilla was tangled up in the ropes. Moments later the fights was stopped with five seconds left in the round.
