The Local Flavor – Dallas, Texas
The Bomb Factory located in the heart of Dallas, Texas hosted an excellent night of boxing to start the weekend by showcasing the local talent the city has to offer.
The first bout of a four match card ended up easily being the fight of the night as Dallas native and undefeated prospect at junior middleweight “Marvelous” Jarvis Shepard destroyed Christopher Turton in forty seconds; dropping him twice in the process. At the opening bell Turton looked wild and discombobulated which allowed Shepard to impose his will and virtually land every shot he threw until the fight was stopped. Before the fight 3kingsboxing.com was able to speak with Shepard about the direction he would like his career to be headed and he immediately mentioned a move down to welterweight. Regardless of his dominating performance, in speaking with him again he stuck to his word about wanting to showcase his power in the lower division. As he improves to 5-0 with five knockouts, it will be interesting to see how he fares while his career moves forward.
The second bout of the card proceeded to be the next best fight of the night as another undefeated Dallas native in “Dynamite” Dominique Griffin swept all four rounds displaying excellent ability to use the jab to the body, bully his opponent on the inside and find a home for the straight right hand in a bantamweight match-up against the aggressive David Alfaro. Early on Alfaro looked to be closing the distance well but ended up showing his inability to adjust as Griffin quickly figured him out and countered him repeatedly for the duration of the fight; improving his record to 2-0 with one knockout.
In the closest fight of the night and perhaps one that was mired in controversy, the hometown favorite and undefeated Edward Vasquez rose from a knockdown to receive a unanimous decision against the also undefeated Brandon Arvie out of Mamou, Louisiana in a six round junior lightweight bout. The first half of the fight was all Vasquez as the high-pressure/high-volume style seemed to be too much for the low-volume, defensive style of his opponent. However as we have seen so many times before when high pressure fighters do not pace themselves well, they start to fatigue. After the third round the tide completely turned as the crowd witnessed the majority of Vasquez’s shots hitting the shoulders and arms of his opponent if not just hitting air while being countered in the process. This ultimately led to the knockdown in the fifth round by a check left hook that should have made this a split or majority type of decision with a draw also being conceivable. As the fight concluded, two of the judges scored the fight 58-55 while the third had it 58-57 all to Vasquez. 3kingsboxing.com scored the fight 57-56 for Brandon Arvie. Nevertheless with this win Vasquez improves to 5-0.
The main event took place within the featherweight division as Ray Ximenez was able to give a little more than he took in a war of attrition against Eugene Lagos who was a last minute replacement for previous opponent John Moralde. This fight was the prime example of two fighters testing one another’s mettle until one starts to waiver and the opponent is able to manifest a divide in talent level. Although showing he is not the most defensively sound fighter in the world, he systematically broke his opponent down by varying his combinations to the body and head which proved to be a smart decision as Lagos displayed a granite-like chin. The only blemish in seventeen fights on the record of Ximenez came from a unanimous decision loss to undefeated WBC ranked #29 prospect Christopher Diaz out of Puerto Rico and after picking up a well deserved unanimous decision, he did not hesitate to express his desire for a rematch. Based on observation, if he wants any chance at being a ranked fighter in any of the four major sanctioning bodies let alone a chance at receiving a title shot, it may not be in his best interest to seek that rematch.
By: EJ “2K” Williams
