Boxing showdown in Edmonton will lead to Slave Lake card

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A lengthy fight card that had two Aboriginal boxers go down in defeat were better fighters than they appeared to be.

June 24 was Showdown 11 at Northlands Agricom in Edmonton with the feature bout being a long-awaited rematch between Edmonton's Tony 'Bad Boy' Badea and Vancouver's Manny 'The Teacher' Sobral.

The fight card opened with a super lightweight bout between Native boxer John Martinez from Camrose who lost a close one to Edmonton's Mario Lechowski. Both fighters came into the fight well prepared and were well matched with neither one ever really having their opponent in any apparent trouble.

Although Lechowski appeared to be throwing more punches, most of them just glanced off Martinez's gloves. The final two of the six rounds was definitely won by Martinez who maintained he entered the fight looking fit, relaxed and confident. He said he trained hard, working on his stamina and style.

Despite the judges' decision, Martinez said, "I thought I'd won."

So did his corner as well as one of the boxing coaches who was in the audience. Martinez would like to have a re-match and he said he looks forward to possibly being on the Aug. 12 fight card in Slave Lake.

The other Native boxer, Francisco Castillo, was in trouble before his fight even started. The Mexican Indian was far overmatched by the classy Tony Pep who jabbed away at will as he continually circled his prey and beat out a tattoo of combinations with his superior reach. Pep, at 6'1", is one of the tallest lightweights in the fight game. He's also no slouch having just come off a match with world- ranked Floyd Mayweather. In that bout, Pep went the distance. His defeat over Castillo increased his record to 40-7.

Andrew Poulos of Salt Lake City managed to outpoint Ted Worth from Detroit in a super lightweight bout and Edmonton's Ron Pasek fell to Toronto's Bryon Mackie, now 14-4, in a super welterweight six rounder.

A truly hard fought heavyweight bout was that of Rupert Thomas from Las Vegas who certainly had his hands full with 314-pounder Anthony Curry from California. Thomas struggled by to win a split decision, improving his pro record to 7-1-1.

The feature fight saw Badea, now 21-2-1, batter and beat a bloodied Sobral whom he KO'd at 1:05 minute mark of the sixth round after sending him to the canvas six times.

Badea who had lost to Sobral two years earlier was pumped for this re-match and didn't disappoint the fans. When he entered the ring, he looked fit, confident and ready.

With two title belts on the line, Badea wasted no time getting down to business as he rocked Sobral in the first, sent him to the canvas in the second, then twice in the third and three times in the sixth. The last knock down was with a huge right that Sobral could not recover from.

Badea who controlled the fight throughout, retained his Canadian title and added the Commonwealth Jr. Middleweight that the undefeated Sobral had held.

In the corner: Tom 'The Bomb' Glesby, the former heavyweight Canadian champ under the late Senator and Chief Walter Twinn, beat up on Jeff Lally from Louisville, Kentucky at a Windsor, Ont. fight card. The referee stopped the fight at 2:05 of the third round, improving Glesby's record to 24-1-1.

Canadian cruiser weight champion, Willard Lewis, will headline an Aug. 12 fight card at Slave Lake.