20-year old and Laredoan and undefeated Jr. middleweight, Nick Molina, was planning on attending Fight Fest 9/11 in his native Laredo as a spectator watching his friends and local fighters throw down in the return of boxing to the Gateway City. Until he received a phone call just over a week ago, offering him a fight on the card. The catch was he needed to fight a touted fighter from Weslaco, Peter Balderas jr, who would be making his pro debut three weight classes above where he typically fights and had the WBC Super Bantamweight Champ Brandon Figueroa by his side. The fighter that Molina is, he gladly accepted.
The fearless but very undersized Molina stepped into the ring and just seconds into the bout got clipped on the chin and dropped. He calmly got up and showed incredible composure for a 20-year-old veteran of just three previous fights. Firing off the jab and he never lost focus. Out boxing Balderas from the outside he can see his larger opponent softening up. Snapping his head back with laser-like right hands. The first round saw Molina picking himself up off the canvas and within the next three minutes absolutely seize control of the fight. He picked up the pace and really started breaking him down Balderas in the second stanza. Clearly slowing down Bladeras threw a sloppy hook that Molina countered perfectly with a right hand that sent his opponent flailing into the ropes. Molina jumped on his wounded opponent like a dog on fear unleashing a barrage of power shots that put Balderas down and brought the referee in to call a halt to the bout with just seconds left in the second round. Molina jumped up three weight classes on a week's notice got himself up off the canvas and delivered a career-best performance securing a second-round TKO victory to move his record to 4-0 (4).
The rest of the card featured Danie "The Disciple" l Villareal of Zapata, Texas scoring an impressive third-round knockout over a game opponent in Ramiro Balli. Villareal outboxed his opponent easily firing off a shotgun-like jab and broke his overmatched opponent down with a ferocious body attack and straight right hands to the head. He scored with a perfect left hook that staggered Balli. The Disciple unleashed a whirlwind of power shots leaving his opponents helpless against the ropes and unable to continue as the ref waived the bout off giving Villareal his fifth win in five pr fights. Villareal will headline the next FIght Fest, on October 29th in his hometown of Zapata.
Alex "The Bazooka" Ramos bounced back nicely from his first career loss to blast out an outmatched veteran by the name of Hector Gutierrez, a veteran of 18 fights who hails from Mission, Texas and scored a vicious one-sided TKO victory. There was also an upset in the building as San Antonio-based Robert Ledesma, who has been in the ring with several world-class fighters, including Max Ornelas, Ray Ximenez, Juan Tapia, and Bam Rodriguez but he finally got his win over a big named fighter. The beneficiary of two very controversial knockdowns secured the victory over Cesar Garcia of Laredo by scores of 38-36 on all three cards. Ledesma moves his record to 3-7 while Garcia whose only other loss was to the prospect of the year Bam Rodriguez, falls to 11-2.
Two other local fighters were able to secure the first win of their professional careers. Jaime Gueverra of Laredo unleashed a ferocious body attack and broke down Austin Rivas of McAllen to secure the victory in his pro debut. Additionally, Oscar Barrera also from the Gateway City picked up the first win of his pro career. In Barrera's other two professional bouts he fought Steve Garagarza both times in two very close and contentious battles. Settling for a draw in the first and suffering a decision loss in the second. He bounced back from that and outlasted Manuel Lerma. taking a majority decision by scores of 40-36, 39-37 in his favor with the third judge scoring 38-38 even.