Live amateur card set for OH in March

Here's some good news for Carson City amateur boxing fans. The Carson City Boxing Club will host an invitational amateur boxing show on March 25 at the Ormsby House.

Coaches and fighters are anxious to participate in the first live card of the new year in town. The non-profit local club's card in October at the Ormsby House was a smashing success - and they hope to repeat that feat once again.

"We hope to have 20 fights and we have fighters from all over Northern Nevada and Northern California coming," said CCBC head coach Chuck Williams. "Reno, Fernley/Wadsworth, Winnemucca and Elko will be sending boxers. So will the Medford Bulldogs from Oregon, who sent fighters to our last card.

"I'm also working on getting some Idaho fighters on the card. That would be nice. They have some tough fighters in Idaho."

The card, will start at 6 p.m. Proceeds go to benefit the CCBC equipment and travel fund. I'll bring you more details and ticket information as fight time draws closer.

- That was the good news. There is some sad news to report. Last Saturday's amateur fight card in Wadsworth had to be called off when it appeared too many young fighters weren't ready. They probably ate too much over the Thanksgiving holiday and didn't train enough, but that's just a guess on my part.

"They just couldn't get enough fighters and that's a shame," said Thelma Tavares, the Northern Nevada registrations secretary for USA Boxing of Nevada. "That's the way it goes sometimes. It's unfortunate, but December is kind of a bad month, with the holidays and school getting ready to let out. The kids just weren't ready."

Williams had his fighters "ready to go" but that wasn't enough to make the card a go.

"We were ready and we are disappointed," Williams said about the cancellation. "The fighters were looking forward to it. Sometimes things don't work out. We'll be ready for Jan. 22 and then the Ormsby House card."

That January date will be in Reno and hosted by the Reno Jets team.

- Fernando Vargas put his undefeated record and IBF junior middleweight title on the line Saturday night against Ronald "Winky" Wright and while he picked the "right" opponent to get a win, he picked the "wrong" opponent to continue his streak of 17-straight knockout wins.

Vargas, who knocked out Raul Marquez at Caesars Tahoe in his last fight in July, took a majority 12-round decision over a game Wright, who actually made the fight with his willingness to trade with Vargas instead of running and hiding like some fighters do.

The decision was closer than some thought it would be. One judge called the fight even and the other two scored it for Vargas by 115-113 and 116-112 margins. The fight was shown on HBO and came from the Chinook Winds casino in Lincoln City, Ore.

I do want to mention that Las Vegas referee Joe Cortez worked the title fight, his 125th world championship fight.

Also on the telecast, they had a Mutt & Jeff fight. Sacramento's Diego Corrales, who is 6-foot tall, defended his IBF junior lightweight title against 5-foot, 5-inch tall John Brown. Corrales won an easy 12-round decision to improve his record to 30-0 in a boring fight. Brown tried but couldn't get inside the long left jab of Corrales enough to do any damage. Every round was the same and the story of the fight was simple. Corrales pecked away at Brown and avoided any trouble as he threw more punches and landed more punches.

- The FOX Sunday night fight card from Casino Magic in Bay St. Louis, Miss., featured one of the better fights of the year when J.C. Candelo and Michael Lerma squared off in a 10-round junior middleweight fight.

Lerma, from Waco, Texas, scored a mild upset in a tough, rock'em, sock'em fight by winning a split decision over Atlanta's Candelo. The fans gave both boxers a standing ovation after the action-packed fight.

The FOX main event had heavyweights in action. This fight was just the opposite of the first fight. Overweight Paea Wolfgramm - he only uses his last name now - took on overweight Calvin Lampkin. They went the full 10 rounds mostly taking turns leaning on each other while throwing nothing punches that had little impact.

Wolfgramm, who weighed 268-pounds, and Lampkin, who came in at 242, struggled throughout. Fans will know what I mean when I say they both had "jiggly bellies." Neither appear to be going anywhere in the heavyweight division but Wolfgramm did improve his record to 18-1 while Lampkin saw his fall to 19-3.

- After a week off, the ESPN2 Friday night fights return this week with a live 2-1/2 hour telecast. The action starts at 6 p.m. The FOX Sunday night card begins at 7 p.m.

Alan Rogers is the Nevada Appeal boxing writer.