Jesus
”
Chuy
”
Rodriguez had just won the United States Boxing Conference
junior welterweight title Saturday at the Monterey Conference
Center and he apologized for his performance.
Monterey – Jesus “Chuy” Rodriguez had just won the United States Boxing Conference junior welterweight title Saturday at the Monterey Conference Center and he apologized for his performance.
“It was an ugly fight,” Rodriguez said of his eight-round unanimous decision over Hector Saez. “I’ll take them the way they come. I had to take care of myself and think about the future.”
The reason Rodriguez is so popular in his hometown of Salinas and surrounding areas is not just because of his crowd-pleasing style of fighting. He is unfailingly honest when it comes to assessing situations in and out of the ring.
He would have preferred to have a more wide-open fight during the main event of the Collision at the Conference Center that attracted more than 1,000 fight fans. But he wasn’t given that choice.
Saez (8-6) was content to hold and look for the big shot. And after Rodriguez built up a big enough lead on points, he did the same.
“I want to give the people what they want to see – more action,” said Rodriguez, 26, who now sports a 12-2 record. “The guy was awkward. He was trying to survive, and then in the later rounds he was trying to end it with one shot. I wanted to stay away from a head butt. He was grabbing me so I figured why not return the favor.”
It made for a lackluster fight, as Rodriguez acknowledged. But it got him his first belt, even if it was a minor one. His son Greg, 7, held onto the belt as Rodriguez stood in his dressing room.
“It’s another notch on my resume,” Rodriguez said when asked what the belt meant to him. “It’s something for me and my son to wrestle with at home.”
Presumably, there would be more action during those encounters.
Other Bouts
Up-and-coming 18-year-old Kaliesha West put on a boxing clinic as she easily outboxed Stella Nijhof in a six-round bantamweight matchup. West (5-0), of Moreno Valley, was too quick for Nijhof (1-1-1). One of those in West’s corner was Jack Mosely, trainer for his son, “Sugar” Shane Mosely.
In other bouts, Keith Spencer of Oxnard made his pro debut by stopping William Jackson of Lancaster in 2:15 of the first round in their scheduled four-round heavyweight bout; Dario Costello of Pittsburg easily outpointed Brandon Mahoney of Hollywood in a four-round welterweight bout; Tony Mizell of San Francisco got off the canvas to KO Mike Hull of Seaside at 2:02 of the first round of a four-round junior middleweight bout; and Constancio Alvarado of Salinas won by majority decision over Steve Rodriguez of Oxnard in a four-round superflyweight tussle.
