Boxing: Chavez defeats Gonzalez in thrilling fashion

For seven-plus thrilling rounds, they battled — Mario Gonzalez the younger, stronger man, Clinton Chavez more experienced and the better technician.

In the end it was Chavez who claimed the United Boxing Organization Continental super welterweight title on Saturday — the victor by eighth-round TKO.

The end of the bout, the finale of a Legacy Promotions professional boxing card at the Marriott Pyramid, came with just five seconds left in the eighth and final round, with Gonzalez dazed and staggering around the ring as Chavez looked for the finish.

Chavez, of San Felipe Pueblo, is 8-2 with five knockouts. Gonzalea, of Hobbs, is 5-1 with four KOs.

The official scorecards were unavailable immediately after the fight, but several observers at ringside had Gonzalez -- strong in the early rounds -- ahead entering the eighth. Chavez said he knew what he needed.

"My corner was saying (before the seventh round), 'You've got to take these last two rounds; you can't leave it to the judges.' I knew he was tired, and that was my plan."

The Journal's scorecard had Gonzalea ahead 67-66, four rounds to three, entering the eighth. Had the fight not been stopped with five seconds remaining, a two-point round for Chavez would have given him a 76-75 edge.

To have a highly competitive bout stopped with five seconds left, said Gerardo Quintana, one of Gonzales's trainers, was hard to swallow.

"Not happy with it," he said. "... Mario was still swinging. Understandably, he was tired. But he wasn't in any danger, or hurt."

Had the bout not been stopped, Quintana said, he believed his fighter would have, or should have, had his hand raised.

"It was a close fight," he said, "but I think we would have edged the win on that one."

In a heavyweight co-main event, Los Lunas’ Cody East (6-1, four KOs) avenged the only loss on his record with a victory by unanimous — though hard-earned —decision over Albuquerque’s Manuel Eastman (3-9-2, two KOs).

The judges’ scores were 60-54, 59-55 and 58-56.

Eastman had defeated East via a stunning first-round KO when the two first faced each other in 2015, landing a thunderous right hand that essentially ended the fight.

In the rematch, East scored repeatedly with his left jab, at the urging of his corner. As the bout progressed, East began landing more and more hard right hands — getting more and more reaction from Eastman.

Yet, Eastman, who’d been stopped short of the distance in six of his previous eight defeats, was still standing at the end. And Eastman landed shots of his own, doing serious damage to East’s right eye along the way and prompting two judges to score one or two rounds in his favor. The Journal scored it 60-54 for East.

Eastman never appeared seriously hurt, though he once remarked “Whooo!" after taking an East body shot and seemed to wobble from the force of an East right hand in the fifth.

Though Eastman had seemed to slow in rounds four and five, he did some of his best work against an obviously tiring East in the sixth.

In a rough-and-tumble super middleweight six-rounder, Albuquerque’s Jordanne Garcia (5-4-3, no KOs) out-punched and out-wrestled Louisiana’s Kayla Williams en route to a victory by lopsided unanimous decision.

The judges scored the bout 59-54 and 60-53, those scores reflecting a point deducted from Williams by referee Ray Chavez in the fifth round for holding.

Williams had to deal with a cut over her left eye, sustained in the second round, as well as Garcia’s cleaner punches. But she’ll leave Albuquerque $200 richer than expected; Garcia weighed in at 169.2 pounds on Friday, missing the contracted weight by 3.2 pounds, and had that amount deducted from her purse and redirected to Williams.

Steve Garcia, his daughter's trainer, said a loss in June by unanimous decision to Nisa Rodriguez at Madison Square Garden Theater in New York exposed a need for better boxing skills.

Sharper, more accurate punches thrown on Saturday, he said, helped his free her hands against Williams' persistent holding.

In other bouts:

Isaiah Aguilar (pro debut), Albuquerque, 137.2 pounds, defeated Codi Chavez (pro debut), Albuquerque, 138, by four-round majority decision.

Ricardo Esquibel (1-2, one KO), Albuquerque, 136.4, def. Pete Medina (pro debut), El Paso, 144.8, TKO-4 (1:11).

David Heredia (1-3), Alamosa, Colo., 196, defeated Jacob Sedillo (pro debut), Albuquerque, 200.6, by first-round TKO.

In an entertaining super welterweight bout, Aguilar and Chavez appeared virtually equal in skill. But as each round progressed, it was Aguilar who landed more often and with more effect.

Aguilar rarely took a step backward. Chavez, reacting to Aguilar’s shots, sometimes did.

Judge Dominic Montoya scored the bout even at 38-38. Anthony Romero had it 39-37 and Chris Telles saw it 40-36, both for Aguilar. The Journal scored it 40-36 for Aguilar.

Esquibel had been stopped in his first two pro fights, one in Florida, one in California, but against opponents who now have a record of 33-0-1.

Matched against an opponent with no professional experience, Esquibel flashed solid skills, hand speed and some power while gradually breaking Medina down.

Medina’s cornermen threw in the figurative towel in the fourth round to save their fighter from unnecessary punishment.

Heredia-Sedillo, the first bout of the night, came to an abrupt end when Sedillo chose not to continue after a first round dominated by Heredia.