Carson boxers shine in Reno

The Carson City Boxing Club had four fighters in action Saturday at the Reno Jets invitational amateur tournament at the Boys & Girls Club in Reno and three of them won their bouts.

"We had hoped to get more than four fighters matched but we're very pleased with the matches we had and the results," CCBC Director Chuck Williams said. "Three won and that was pretty good. That was a good effort from our fighters and coaches and we're looking forward to our next tournament."

CCBC fighters Dwayne Pope and Marco Urbina won by TKO in round 2 and Joe Goss won by decision. Pope beat Fernando Camacho of the Reno Jets and Urbina, in his first fight ever, stopped Henry Hoppe of the Jets. Goss defeated Fernley's Scott Sampson and CCBC fighter Mike Loe lost by decision to Alfonso Chavez of the Jets.

"This was the best show I ever put on," said Thelma Tavares of the Jets and an official of USA Boxing of Nevada, who sanctioned the card. "We had 24 fights and a packed house of over 400 people were there. It was a good crowd and a good card."

The main event saw Johnny Mancilla from Susanville, Calif., win by decision over Jets fighter Theron DeLorme.

Teams from Fernley, Wadsworth, Fallon and Susanville had fighters on the card, too. Williams and CCBC Head Coach Frank Peralta, along with assistant coaches Louis Loe and Art Shaw, worked the corner of the local fighters.

The next live amateur card is set for April 8 here in Carson City at the Ormsby House. The CCBC will be the host team for that invitational.

- A big card in Las Vegas Saturday proved to be a flop both at the gate and inside the ropes.

The card, from the almost empty MGM Grand, featured undefeated Floyd Mayweather defending his WBC junior lightweight (135-pound limit) title against Goyo Vargas.

Mayweather, 23-0 with 17 KOs, won every round except one in a boring blowout of a fight that had little action or interest, was lopsided, and dull and a complete waste of time.

HBO showed that fight, as well as the Diego Corrales defense of his IBF junior lightweight title against challenger Derrick Gainer. Corrales, from Sacramento, took a couple of rounds to get going and then took Gainer out in round 3.

Corrales, undefeated at 31-0 with 25 KOs, knocked Gainer down with a good left hook midway through the third round. When Gainer got up, Corrales put him down again and even though Gainer got up and appeared ready to continue, referee Jay Nady stopped it. Maybe a tad too quick of a stoppage, but maybe not, as Gainer wasn't going to last the round anyway. The official time was 1:50 of round three.

- The ESPN2 Friday night fights came live from the Mangness Arena in Denver and featured hometown hero Stevie Johnston defending his WBC lightweight (135-limit) title against Julio Alvarez on Mexico City.

It was a blowout win for Johnston, who basically beat the crap out of Alvarez until Reno referee Vic Draculich stopped the mismatch at the 2:25 mark of round 2. That pleased the sellout crowd of more than 8,000 fans, who seemed to all favor Johnston, who improved his record to 30-1 with 15 KOs.

The semi-main saw Sugar Ray Leonard bring his undefeated prospect, Gary Jones, in to fight Denver's J.C. Candelo in a middleweight (160-limit) fight. Leonard manages the Washington D.C. fighter Jones, who is trained by former light heavyweight champ Eddie Mustafa Muhhamed, who won the title back when he was known as Eddie Gregory.

Even with all that high-powered help in his corner, it didn't help. Jones, who was undefeated at 16-0 going into the scheduled 10-round fight, was a heavy favorite over Candelo, who was 17-3-3 and coming in off two straight losses.

Jones was ahead and headed for a decision win when, in round 9, Candelo put Jones down and out with a picture perfect right to the jaw at the three-minute mark of the round. They brought in a stretcher to take Jones out of the ring, but he managed to get to his feet and leave without it.

This Friday (6 p.m.) the live ESPN2 card will feature James Butler (15-1, 10 KOs) fighting Arthur Allen (26-5, 9 KO's) in the main event.

- Sunday night on FOX Sports the card came from the Horseshoe Hotel/Casino in Tunica, Miss. The main event had a big surprise when late substitute Ben Tackie from Ghana won a unanimous 10-round decision over San Antonio's Golden Johnson in a junior welterweight (140-limit) fight that was an OK kind of fight.

The first fight Fox showed was much better as Teddy Reid won the unheard of NABF interim junior welterweight title by unanimous 12-round decision over Emanuel Burton in a fight that could have gone either way. Fox will rebroadcast the card this Thursday night at 8 p.m.

- The Ormsby house has posted the price on the April 29 heavyweight title fight between champ Lennox Lewis and challenger Michael Grant. Lewis is listed at -$2.40 while Grant is at $+1.90. That's a pretty decent price on Grant, who is undefeated and has a decent shot at upsetting Lewis.

ALAN ROGERS is the Nevada Appeal boxing writer.