BELTRAN WINS FIRST WORLD TITLE!

April 25, 2024

Simon Ruvalcaba

Ringside

 Championship Boxing returned to Reno, Nevada for the first time since 2005 as Bob Arum’s Top Rank in association with Tommy and Terry Lane’s Let’s Get It On Promotions brought ESPN boxing to town! The packed house of 2,122 at the first ever boxing event at The Grand Sierra Resort’s renovated showroom got a glimpse of boxing’s future along with the title winning efforts of a longtime warrior finally capturing a world title!

  Nothing has ever come easy for Ray Beltran, so it was only fitting that he had to overcome cuts over both his eyes to win his first world title capturing the W.B.O. lightweight title with a wider than expected unanimous 12 round decision over Nambia’s Paulus Moses in Mose’s U.S. debut. The fight was close throughout with ringside opinion split as the two warriors each had their moments. Beltran seemed to close the show the last three rounds to give him the nod in the opinion of this scribe. In the end the hard luck Beltran who has overcome many hurdles in his career ended up with his hands raised and with the first belt around his waist with scorecards of 117-111 twice and 116-112. Punchline scored the bout 115-113 for Betran who improves to 35-7-1 (21) while the 39 year old Moses falls to 40-4 (25) with the game defeat. Much buzz at ringside was that what’s next is a possible May showdown versus Lomachenko at Madison Square Garden? The cuts however may put a damper on those plans? 
  In the co-main event Egidijus ‘The Machine’ Kavaliauskas of the famed Oxnard fight stable that features Vasyl Lomachenko captured the N.A.B.F. Welterweight title with a devastating stoppage of Russia’s David Avanesyan at 1:55 of the 6th round. The Machine established his power early and kept the advantage through 5 rounds.  A barrage of punches forced referee Tony Weeks to come in and wave off the action.

  In the opening televised bout Featherweight and U.S. Olympic Silver Medalist Shakur Stevenson continued his rise up the pro ladder with a unanimous decision over game Texan Juan Tapia. Stevenson controlled the pace throughout his first scheduled 8 rounder. Dominating each round as he pitched a shutout 80-72 on all three cards. Shakur is now 5-0 (2), Tapia falls to 8-2 (3). With the victory, Stevenson is now unbeaten in Reno, having won 3 Junior National Amatuer tournaments hosted by the city along with the U.S. Olympic Trials and Box offs that took place here as well.

 In a battle of unbeaten Super Featherweights, Olympic Gold medalist Robson Conceicao of Bahia, Brazil improved to 6-0 (4) with a unanimous 6 round decision over San Antonio, TX’s Ignacio Holguin. No knockdowns where scored but the wild swinging Conceicao dominated the action and a 10-8 round could’ve been scored in any number of the rounds of the affair? Scorecards where 60-52 (twice) and 60-54. Holguin falls to 4-1-1 (4).

 The 2nd of 3 Oxnard training camp fighters on the card Sagadat Rakhmankul made a successful pro debut with a stoppage victory at 1:51 of round 5 against the game Noel Equeda of Wichita, KS in a scheduled 6 round Super Welterweight bout. Rakhmankul controlled the first 4 rounds and in the 5th round picked up the pace. A series of unanswered blows forced a halt to the action. Esqueda falls to 8-5-2 (6).

  I first saw Philadelphia Heavyweight Bryant “By-By” Jennings fight in his 9th professional fight on the undercard of Amir Khan versus Zab Judah.  I wrote back then that his lack of size and power may be a shortcoming? I will now admit to be eating those words as the 2 time world title challenger has now developed and is looking ready to possibly win a belt? With trainer John David Jackson wanting him to realize how hard of a hitter Jennings is, Bryant displayed his confidence dropping Houston, TX’s via Uzbekistan’s Akhror Muralimov 5 times in route to a TKO victory at 1:12 of round 3. Jennings found a home for his right hand and a series of rights dropped Muralimov twice in round 1. The right hand continued to find it’s mark in round 2 for 1 more knockdown. Two more right hand ending combos dropped Muralimov in round 3 forcing referee Jay Nady to stop the bout. With the win, Jennings improves to 22-2 (13) while Muralimov drops to 14-4 (11). Jennings plans to next be in action on April 28th.

  In the opening bout the first of three Oxnard training camp fighters Alexander Besputin punished Wesley Tucker for 5 rounds in a scheduled 8 round Welterweight bout before Tucker’s corner mercifully stopped the bout between rounds. Besputin improves to 9-0 (7) while Toledo, Ohio’s Tucker falls to 14-2 (8).
  The night’s swing bout which took place after the main event and after the ESPN lights where off featured local Reno favorite Ricardo ‘The Dreamer’ Lucio-Galvan take on Kalispell, Montana’s Kenneth Guzman in a four round Featherweight contest. Much of the crowd stayed to watch the local favorite and University of Nevada Business major. He did not disappoint scoring 2 first round knockdowns en route to a TKO stoppage victory at 2:05 of the third round to improve to 2-0 (2). Guzman falls to 4-2 (1). After a pro debut that lasted just 55 seconds and the fast start to his second pro bout, Lucio-Galvan didn’t seem to tire in his relentless attack and He may have impressed Top Rank enough to earn future fights under their famed banner?

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