Photo courtesy of Erik Killin.

Antonio Escalante’s hopes of  reviving his once promising career were dashed Friday Night at the Fairmont, Ca. Civic Center as Alejandro Perez registered a stunning 1st Round KO that left Perez’s Starlight Boxing Club Corner exuberant and Escalante’s career in apparent free fall.  Escalante, who was attempting to rebound from last September’s devastating 3rd round loss in a  WBO featherweight eliminator to  former WBO super bantamweight champion Daniel Ponce De Leon on the Shane Mosley-Sergio Mora undercard, ran into a  devastating left hook to the body and right hand to the head that dropped the El Paso native and left Referee Ed  Collantes little option but to stop the fight at 2:57 of the opening stanza.  The 24 year old Perez improves to 15-2 with 10 KO’s and moves forward while the 25-year-old Escalante drops to 24-4 (3 KO losses)  is forced to ponder where his career is headed after a second straight disappointing defeat.

In the co-Feature,  Chris Cornel improved to 4-1-1 with a workmanlike but uninspiring 6th  Round split Decision  victory over Carlos Musquez ( 3-5) that featured both fighters laboring at times and Cornel, who’s impressed before, looking a bit flat. Judges Dan Collins and  Steve English scored it 59-56 and 58-56 for the winner, while Judge Bruce Rasmussen turned in a somewhat suspect 58-56 for Musquez .

Former 2010 National Under 19 Champion Amateur Standout Trevor  McCumby easily disposed of overmatched Nathan Ortiz, who was imported from Florida for what amounted to a 73 second pummeling. The talented 18 year old McCumby, now training under the watchful eye of veteran trainer Jimmy Adams,  wasted little time showing his skills as he improved to 2-0 (2 KO’s) while Ortiz makes the long flight home winless in his second fight. 

In the highlight of the night for local fans, Fairfield’s own Manuel “Tino” Avila thrilled the home folks with a stirring second round stoppage of  Frank Gutierrez.  Avila wasted little time  as he controlled the tempo from the start, scoring a knockdown at the end of  the 1st round when Referee Ray Balewicz ruled Gutierrez glove had touched the canvas after being rocked at the bell. Finishing what he’d started,  Avila landed a hard right that dropped Gutierrez to open the second, and then another right followed as Balewicz came to the rescue of a fallen Gutierrez at the :57 second mark of the second stanza.  Avila improves to 3-0 with 2 KO’s while Gutierrez drops to 2-9-2.

Guy Robb improved to 3-0 (1 KO) winning a spirited  4 Round Majority Decision over Manuel Morales, who was making his Pro Debut.  Plenty of give and take in this one, which left the crowd cheering on their way out the door.  Judge Steve English scored it 38-38 while Dan Collins and Bruce Rasmussen both had it 40-36.

Roman Morales used superior hand speed and crisp counterpunching to easily outdistance a game but overmatched Danny Pantoja 40-36 on all three cards. Morales improves to 2-0 (1 KO) while Pantoja
remains winless at 0-4-2.