Boxing
When: Saturday, 6 p.m.
Where: Ohkay Hotel Casino
Who: Angelo Sanchez vs. Mark Morgenstern, Aiseah Achesa vs. Manuel Eastman, several other fights
Streaming: YouTube (@FIGHT-BUZZ-TV)
The question, essentially, asked itself. Why would boxing promoter Pat Holmes put Manuel Eastman back in the ring with Aiseah Achesa?
On Jan. 31 at Ohkay Hotel Casino, on a card promoted by Holmes, Achesa defeated Eastman by unanimous four-round decision. All three judges scored the bout a shutout, 40-36.
Saturday, they’ll face each other again in a four-round bout at the same venue.
Achesa is an up-and-coming cruiserweight with a 5-0 record (two wins by knockout). Eastman (3-11-2, one KO) has lost five of his last six, the losing streak interrupted only by a draw. He hasn’t won a fight in four years.
So, why?
Because, Holmes said, Eastman asked for it.
And that was OK with Achesa.
After their fight in January, Holmes said, Eastman and Achesa did some sparring in advance of the latter’s Oct. 3 fight in Albuquerque against Bryant McClain. The sparring got a bit out of hand, Holmes said, and “they kind of ended up with some bad blood.”
The first fight, Holmes added, wasn’t as lopsided round by round as the scorecards suggest.
“(Eastman) pressed the action,” Holmes said. “He just couldn’t get off.”
Holmes said Eastman is in better shape than he was nine months ago.
As well, there’s the proverbial “puncher’s chance.” On a 2015 Holmes card at Buffalo Thunder Resort & Casino, Eastman delivered a right hand that separated heavily favored Cody East from his senses and led to East’s only pro boxing defeat.
“That was one of the most exciting times at Buffalo Thunder, for sure,” Holmes said.
In Saturday’s main event at Ohkay, Santa Fe’s Angelo Sanchez (1-1-1, one KO) is scheduled to face Albuquerque’s Mark Morgenstern (1-0, one KO) in a four-round welterweight bout.
DODSON LOSES: Saturday in Newark, New Jersey, John Dodson’s bid for a second bare-knuckle (BKFC) title ended in a loss by split decision to bantamweight champion Jamel Herring.
The Albuquerque fighter lost in bare-knuckle competition for the first time, dropping his record to 4-1-1. Herring, a former world champion boxer, is 3-0.
Meanwhile, Dodson’s BKFC flyweight title has evaporated with the BKFC’s decision to scrap its 125-pound division. The flyweight rankings have disappeared from the BKFC’s website.
Saturday’s fight was the first of three on Dodson’s recently renegotiated contract. But after Dodson went without a BKFC fight for 2 1/2 years before the Herring fight, and with the flyweight division eliminated, it’s unclear what’s next for the 42-year-old.
MORE NOV. 7 UPDATES: Salita Promotions continues adding bouts to the Nov. 7 Abraham Perez-Yankiel Rivera card at the Kiva Auditorium.
Recently announced: an eight-round heavyweight bout between Sardius Simmons (10-0, six KOs) of Flint, Michigan and Cesar Navarro (15-4, 13 KOs) of Phoenix.
There are six bouts listed, headed by Albuquerque’s Perez (15-0, seven KOs) in the first defense of his WBA interim flyweight title against Puerto Rico’s Rivera (8-1-1, four KOs).
In a long-awaited rematch, fellow Albuquerqueans Josh Torres (31-7-2, 17 KOs) and Jose Luis “Guero” Sanchez (14-7-1, four KOs) are scheduled for a 10-round bout with the vacant UBO welterweight title at stake.
Torres defeated Sanchez by seventh-round TKO in their last fight, more than 13 years ago.
A third local fight matches Albuquerque’s Quentin De Leon (1-2, one KO) against Moriarty’s Austin Lewis (1-3, no KOs) in a four-round bantamweight bout. This one’s a rematch as well; Lewis defeated De Leon by unanimous decision last December.
The Nov. 7 card is a collaboration between Salita Promotions and Albuquerque’s Legacy Promotions.
JASON, TOO: Albuquerque’s Jason Sanchez, Guero’s younger brother, is scheduled to face unbeaten Angelo Pena on Dec. 12 in Charleston, South Carolina.
After five losses in six fights, those defeats coming against opponents with a cumulative record of 93-7, Sanchez (18-6, 10 KOs) will take a two-fight winning streak into the 10-round bout against Pena (13-0, 7 KOs).
The vacant NABA super featherweight (130-pound) title will be at stake.
Pena, a native of Spain, is listed on boxrec.com as a Swiss resident.
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