Golden Boy Promotions presented LA Fight Club on Thursday August 10 in Downtown Los Angeles. The fight card was filled with fighters from all over Southern California and there was a party atmosphere in the building at the very beginning. The crowd was eager to see a night full of action and they were not disappointed. Three bouts were on deck for the Estrella TV broadcast with the main event being local fighter Charles Huerta take on Mexico’s Miguel A. Gonzalez.

Super Featherweight: Charles Huerta (19-5, 11 KO’s) vs. Miguel A. Gonzalez (20-2 17, KO’s)

Charles Huerta is hometown fighter hailing from Paramount, CA which is only a few miles from the Belasco Theater where tonight’s action took place. Huerta had a tough time defending his home turf as his opponent Miguel A. Gonzalez gave him tough test in the night’s main event.

The fight started with good back and forth action from both men. Gonzalez was a little more active on his feet while Huerta picked his shots and stayed in the pocket. Gonzalez had success early on in hitting the body of Huerta but a nice hard left hook from Huerta rocked Gonzalez and slowed down any momentum he had gained.

The main event was very entertaining but it did have a small moment of controversy in the second round. Huerta landed a hard shot to the body that crippled Gonzalez and sent him to the canvas. However, the referee ruled the shot a low blow and it was not counted as an official knockdown. The crowd did not seem to buy it but Gonzalez was in pain either way. After a few moments he was ready to continue. Gonzalez ate one more shot to the body and now that he had the low blow in the referee’s mind he sold it as such. The fight was not stopped but the referee did warn Huerta to keep the punches up.

The middle rounds saw Huerta push forward but Gonzalez did not back down. It was in the fourth and fifth round where Huerta turned up the gears and became the more aggressive fighter. Gonzalez looked to be gassing out by the fifth round but still remained competitive by switching his stance.

The sixth round saw the most action as both men really went all out and stayed in tight on each other and exchanged blows. Huerta was getting the better of the exchanges by remaining more technical then Gonzalez who started to look frustrated by the lack of damage he was inflicting on Huerta.

As the final round began there was a sense in the air that this round could be the best of the fight. Unfortunately that was not the case as less than a minute in a clash of heads halted all the action. Gonzalez suffered a small cut above his left eye but it was Huerta who got the worst of it. Huerta has suffered a deeper cut above his right eye. He was examined by the ring side physician and after a few moments it was determined that he could not continue to fight. The blood from the cut had run into Huerta’s eye and down his chest. It was an easy call for the physician. After the stoppage the fight was then turned over to the judges’ score cards.

“I thought we got the unanimous decision,” said Charles Huerta. “I felt like I was blocking a lot more of his shots, and was able to counter him. I will say that I felt that I let myself get smothered, and maybe that’s why it looked a lot more even inside the ring. He made it a tough fight. Once I go back to the gym, I will be working on my conditioning so that I can have better performances than this fight.”

Charles Huerta def. Miguel A. Gonzalez via decision (78-75, 77-76, and 78-75) after an accidental head but in Round 8 at: 032.  

 Lightweight: Christian Gonzalez (16-1, 14 KO’s) vs. Daniel Perales (10-10-1, 5 KO’s)

Christian Gonzalez has a large number of fans in the crowd. Hailing from Orange County it is obvious his fans made the trip up the freeway to Los Angeles to cheer him on. There were many fans wearing “Chimpa” shirts and there was a “Chimpa is #1” sign in the front row. Daniel Perales had no other choice but to try and drown out the fan’s admiration for Gonzalez and focus on the task at hand.

As the opening bell sounded the crowd started chanting “Chimpa, Chimpa, Chimpa”. Perales stayed closed in and tight to start the fight but Gonzalez landed at will. Gonzalez pushed Perales to the ropes and landed a hard right. Perales pushed his way off the ropes but Gonzalez remained calm and focused. Gonzalez continued to land and ended the round with a nice combo to the head and body of Perales.

Perales came out a little more aggressive to start the second round but that did not faze Gonzalez. Gonzalez continued his offensive onslaught against Perales. At one point Perales complained to the referee of being hit in the back of the head but that did little to slow Gonzalez down. As the action resumed Gonzalez stalked Perales to the ropes and landed a vicious overhand right that wobbled Perales. Gonzalez followed that up with a vicious uppercut right before the bell sounded.

Perales took a great beating in the first two rounds and everyone in the building could sense that the end of the fight was near. A hard right hand from Gonzalez pushes Perales to the ropes. From there Gonzalez lands a left cross. Perales tried to escape but wound up in the corner and after a few more punches from Gonzalez he fell to his knees and was unable to answer the referee’s count.

“When the referee calls the fight, man, that’s the greatest feeling in the world after putting in eight-weeks of hard work in training,” said Christian Gonzalez. “Since my last fight, I learned to be a lot more relaxed, and to really take my time and have patience inside the ring. Perales had a good left hook and had a lot of power, but we practiced my jab in the ring and we wanted to go round by round – I’m glad that we got the knockout on the third round!”

Christian Gonzalez def. Daniel Perales via KO in Round 3 at 1:14.

Featherweight: Francisco Esparza (6-0, 2 KO’s) vs. Fernando Fuentes (12-7, 4 KO’s)

Francisco Fuentes came out to the ring first looking focused. Fernando Esparza came out second and was accompanied by a Banda vocalist who was singing has he escorted Esparza to the ring. Esparza hails from Las Vegas and there was a little bit of the Vegas showmanship in his entrance.

As far as opening bouts go, this match up good job of getting the crowd in the fighting mood. Both Esparza and Fuentes did not back down and took everything each other had to give.  The fight started with Esparza landing early shots to the body of Fuentes. However, it did not take Fuentes long to find a home for his left hook. The first real big shot of the fight came from Fuentes’ left hook that landed square on Esparza’s face. The shot garnered a collection of cheers from the crowd.

The second round turned out to be Fuentes’ best work. He opened the round by landing a series of body shots that really seemed to hurt Esparza. Yet despite having his opponent hurt, Fuentes could not follow up on the damage; much to the dismay of his corner who kept screaming for Fuentes to push forward and land more shots to the body. Esparza used a series of tie ups to help him recover and it seemed to work has he was able to finish the round with a flurry of punches.

The middle rounds of the bout say both fighters go all out and trade punches. At times each fighter looked to gain the upper hand the tide was always quick to turn back in the other’s favor. Esparza took a little bit of a beating in the middle rounds but he closed out the fight strong and it looked like Fuentes was gassing out just a bit.

It was a difficult bout to score with both men showing their fighting spirit and refusing to back down. When it came time to see the judges’ scorecards one judge had it 58-56 for Esparza while the other two scored it 57-57 making the bout a majority draw.

“It is what it is, obviously the judges have a different view point from me inside the ring,” said Francisco Esparza. “We kept clashing heads, and I got a cut over my eye that I got lucky didn’t get out of control. He was a bit taller and had a bit more of a reach. Every fight is a chance to improve.”

“He was pretty tough, but he kept head-butting me,” said Fernando Fuentes. “I’m hearing that they want a rematch, and if we were to fight again, I’d like to go eight rounds instead of six. It took us both some time to warm up, and in the beginning he was a bit slow and I wish I would have thrown more punches at the start.”