After Friday night’s fights, here and elsewhere, here’s a look at which direction Albuquerque-area fighters are headed.

Going Up: Holly Holm.

Holm (30-1-3, nine knockouts) was impressive, though against an opponent of limited ability whom she’d beaten before, in pitching a shutout on the scorecards Friday night against fellow Albuquerquean Victoria Cisneros at Route 66 Casino Hotel.

“I felt like I was putting together stuff that I’d been working on,” Holm said afterward. “Still not good enough, though, and it never is. … The day I think I know it all is the day I’m retiring.”

Holm, 29, won’t be retiring anytime soon. Promoter Lenny Fresquez announced Friday a Dec. 2 bout at Route 66 between his star client and France’s Anne Sophie Mathis (23-0, 20 KOs), widely considered the hardest puncher in women’s boxing.

In between, Holm has an MMA fight this summer and, tentatively, another boxing match in the fall.

Going Down: Archie Ray Marquez.

Marquez (12-1, eight KOs) suffered his first pro defeat Friday night in Santa Ynez, Calif., and it was an eye-opener. On the canvas four times against Art Hovhannesyan (14-0-1, eight KOs), the Albuquerque lightweight was stopped in the sixth round.

It’s clear now that Marquez, a skilled and intelligent boxer at age 22, is not yet strong enough of body and chin to dictate the terms of a fight against top-grade opposition.

Going Up: Fidel Maldonado Jr.

Maldonado (11-0, 10 KOs) hasn’t proven much yet, other than that he can really punch. Friday at Route 66, the 19-year-old Albuquerque southpaw stopped Eddie Ramirez of San Antonio, Texas, via fourth-round TKO. Ramirez (6-8, three KOs) has lost six of his last seven.

Someday, Maldonado will have to step up in competition, as Marquez has done. In the meantime, he’s an exciting prospect and an entertainment bargain.

Going Down: Victoria Cisneros.

Does anyone fight with more heart and determination than Cisneros (5-12, one KO)?

She’s a far better fighter than the record suggests, and if she were a male boxer with similar skills – given the far deeper pool of available opponents in the men’s game – those numbers might be reversed.

Cisneros, 26, can keep fighting top contenders and keep making decent money doing it. But the punishment she’s taken the past 2 1/2 years, in losses to Holm, Cecilia Braekhus, Melissa Hernandez, Chevelle Hallback and Holm again, borders on the frightful.

Going Up: Willie Villanueva.

Fighting for the first time under a training and management team headed by Ronnie Huizar, Villanueva (10-3, two KOs) was a changed fighter Friday in defeating fellow Albuquerquean David Proa by split decision. His punches were straight and sharp, his balance good, his stick-and-move strategy successful.

Going Down: David Proa.

Friday’s bout with Villanueva easily could have gone Proa’s way; in fact, one official scorecard gave him five of the six rounds. He was the more aggressive fighter and landed the harder shots.

Yet, Proa (7-3, seven KOs) wasn’t aggressive enough, and those shots weren’t hard enough.

As Villanueva moved laterally, Proa spent too much time patiently chasing him instead of actively cutting him off. And where’s the power that produced early knockout victories in his first six fights?

Getting off the elevator (probably): Joaquin Zamora.

After a loss via brutal, eight-round decision to Elco Garcia, Zamora (18-4-1, 12 KOs) said he was leaning toward retirement.

“I can’t seem to stay active,” said Zamora, after his third fight in two years. “I’ve got no manager, I’ve got no promoter; I just fight because I love to do it.”

Zamora wasn’t loving the Garcia right hands that floored him twice in the third round Friday and once in the fifth. Yet, the Santa Fe resident finished on his feet – half of an incredible fight.

But, at 33, is it all worth the sacrifice?

“If you were to ask me right now if I’m done, he said, “I’d lean more to yes.”

Stuck between floors: Brandi Montoya.

The 18-year-old Los Lunas High School graduate is fast becoming the hard-luck fighter of 2011.

Montoya was supposed to make her pro debut in February, but the card was canceled because of slow advance ticket sales.

In April, she lost a majority decision to Santa Fe’s Natalie Roy in a bout that could have gone either way.

Then, at Thursday’s weigh-in for the Holm-Cisneros card, Montoya watched as her scheduled opponent, Diana Torres, was arrested and hauled to jail for a probation violation. No replacement was found, and Montoya was scratched from the card.

Welcome to the elevator, Brandi.

— This article appeared on page D2 of the Albuquerque Journal