Carrizo Springs is a town of about 5,000 located 45 miles north of the Mexican border just over an hour's drive from Laredo. If you have not heard of it, you're about to. It's the home of Giancarlo Rodriguez. Rodriguez scored a unanimous decision points victory to secure a spot in the finals of the USA Boxing National Championships in the finals of the 110-pound junior division. Scoring with a second-round counter left hand from the southpaw dropped his opponent Jallen Young of Tampa Florida. The South Texan remained very active on his toes firing combinations from the outside and then getting on the inside in a fan-friendly style and unleashing with lightning-quick combinations on the inside. The victorious South Texan calls his style Mexican-Style. Young down on all cards after two came out storming and the two combatants exchanged heated shots on the inside throughout a fan-friendly third round. It was not enough tho as Rodriguez rolled to a wide points decision. He will fight Ra-leek born in the finals who defeated Jose Artiga of Houston Texas in the semi-finals.
Moises Rodriguez of El Paso moves to Finals kicks off the day strong for Texas in the opening bout in ring 3 dominating Yedrian Otero of Kissimme FL. Working his body and breaking him down with a consistent left hook to the body that kept finding its mark. The bodywork took its toll as Otero, clearly down on points, stepped up the aggression and started walking into more power shots that caused an eight-count and sealed the deal for Rodriguez who moves onto tomorrows finals .
In what was a break through performance for Rio Grande Valley antive Fabian Diaz he dominated and outclassed Khallq Harrison of Washington DC on his way to a uniamous decision victory and earning a trip to the fianls of the 139 pound youth division tomorrow in Shreveport. He used a thudding jab and mixed in straight hand to perfection forcing Harrison backwards and into the ropes. Diaz, clearly the stronger man, kept the pressure on and kept landing. Harrison, apparently didn't like the taste of Diaz's power and never got aggressive or picked up the pace allowing Diaz to fight his fight and roll to the clear points victory.
In the 156-pound youth division semi-finals there was an all-Texas shootout between two national champions fighting in a new weight class. As RGV native Sebastian Juarez of Brownsville and DFW Joseph Almajdi of Fort Worth battled it out in a very high-speed chess match. It was Almadji’s jab that carried the day. Landing from long range he was able to keep Juarez coming up short and was able to avoid much of his combinations. Having dropped the first two rounds across the board Juarez picked up the pace and got going landing thudding right hands and precise combinations. He carried the final round on 4 of the 5 cards but it was not enough. As the DFW fighter earned the nod in this all-Texas shootout.
The following is a list of other semifinal winners from Texas:
Rene Camacho Houston W Yu'shore Williams
JayShawn Wallace Dallas W Yahsin Arrington
Jose Artiga Hoston W Ra-Leek Born
Giancarlo Rodriguez Carrizo Springs W Jallen Young
David Lona Kyle W Yahir Diaz Martinez
David Cardenas San Antonio W Terry Washington
Jesus Martinez Del Rio W Troy Nah
Fabian Diaz Edinburg W Khallq Harrison
Joseph Almadji Fort Worth W Sebastian Juarez Brownsville
Jaycob Ramos Plano W Jeremy Ortiz
Richard Fernandez San Antonio W Jordan Roach
Emilio Garcia Laredo W Deric Davis
Gerardo Favila Weslaco W Jayden Jr