Gonzales remains Flawless, outpoints Boone

Gonzales remains Flawless, outpoints Boone

Mark E. Ortega

FightFanNation.com

March 19, 2010

Friday night at the Grand Sierra Resort & Casino in front of a packed house, Brandon “Flawless” Gonzales [11-0] of Sacramento, California took a big step towards establishing himself as a top prospect at 160 pounds by easily outpointing rugged gatekeeper Darnell Boone [16-15] over eight rounds in the main event of Reno Xtreme Fights III.

Gonzales nearly stopped Boone at the end of the opening round when a perfect three punch combination landed flush on the chin near the ropes. Gonzales was unlucky in that it came near the bell and he had little time to follow up. That series of punches was enough to put Boone on his back heels the rest of the night as he moved around the ring with Gonzales stalking him. Boone, best known for dropping Andre Ward badly in a fight he lost by majority decision, proved his merit and pushed the young prospect to eight rounds for the first time in his career. Aside from a stiff jab, Boone did not offer much in terms of offense and Gonzales took advantage by being the aggressor. Boone tried closing each round with a flurry to impress the judges but Gonzales always answered back with good shots inside of his own. Gonzales looked to be slowing down a bit around the middle of the fight but he caught his second wind quickly and never lost momentum en route to a wide unanimous decision victory by scores of 80-71, 79-73, 79-74.

In a six-round over the limit welterweight bout, Karim “Hard Hitta” Mayfield [12-0-1, 7 KOs] of Daly City, California remained undefeated as he clubbed out a majority decision victory over game Mario Ramos [17-7, 3 KOs] of Tucson, Arizona in his Reno debut. Mayfield had problems with the tricky lefty early on but he was able to land the more telling blows throughout the bout. Ramos tied up Mayfield each time he tried to fight on the inside but was unable to avoid wide overhand rights from the Bay Area based prospect and that was the difference. The scores were 59-55 and 58-56 in favor of Mayfield while one judge had it even 57-57. This was the first fight that Mayfield had Andre Ward trainer Virgil Hunter in his corner and it was due to late adjustments made in the fight that Mayfield was able to eek out a decision by winning the final few rounds. The fight was much closer than the scores would indicate but Mayfield did enough to earn the decision.

In an entertaining albeit unskilled battle between two pro debuts, Omar Zaldivar [1-0] of Reno, Nevada outmanned Tom Peterson [0-1] of Modesto, California en route to a four-round unanimous decision victory. Peterson looked at risk of being brutally knocked out for much of the fight as he moved straight backwards many times and paid the price via Zaldivar right hands that found the button. Luckily for Peterson, Zaldivar seemed to be short in the power department and he was able to make it to the final bell. In the last round Peterson was the recipient of a brutal body attack that had him gasping for air with his hands down for much of the final few minutes of the fight.

The card was a boxing/MMA mixed card promoted by locally based Let's Get It On Promotions. The next card will take place May 22^nd at the same venue and will likely feature Gonzales and Mayfield again.