3^rd Round Knockout for San Jose’s own Ricardo Cortes

By:  Jeff Townsend of Bayareasportsdrive.com

Last night at the HP Pavilion in San Jose, California, super middleweight Ricardo Cortes (now 19-1-1, 14 KOs) needed just 3 rounds to knockout Paulino Avitia (now 13-7, 9 KOs).   The hometown fans were in full support of San Jose’s Ricardo Cortes, with “Team Cortes” signs scattered throughout the arena.  It is not surprising to see such support for Cortes, not only because he is an exciting fighter to watch but he has also fought 13 of his 21 fights in San Jose. 

In the first two rounds, Cortes used effective jabs to the head and body in order to keep Avitia at a distance while occasionally opening up with a barrage of punches.  In the 3^rd round, Cortes caught Avitia with a solid left-right combination that sent Avitia to the canvas immediately.  As soon as Avitia hit the canvas, the referee quickly jumped in to stop the fight. 

The crowd understandably went wild for the exciting knockout but it seemed that the stoppage was a bit early.  Safety of a fighter is extremely important but the referee did not even give Avitia a chance to stand up and make the count.  Avitia was still on one knee and gathering his senses when the referee wrapped his arms around him in order to stop the fight. 

The Future for Ricardo Cortes

At 19-1-1, Cortes looks to have a chance to be a contender in the super middleweight division.  His only loss was a fight in 2003 in which he was disqualified due to throwing an illegal punch behind the head.  He clearly is taking his career seriously since he weighed in at 162 pounds for this fight with Avitia, the lightest he has ever weighed for a professional fight. 

If there is anything that Cortes needs to improve on is that he does not seem to mix his offense effective.  He will jab to both his opponent’s head and body but he does not really follow-up with solid shots behind these jabs.  Instead of using the jab to set up his power punches, he will suddenly throw a number of hard shots which can leave him vulnerable to a counterpunch. 

 Cortes’ promotional team may want to start thinking about increasing his level of opposition.  He has fought some fighters multiple times and nearly all of his fights have been in California.  For example, he has fought two fighters three times apiece (Sheldon Callum, Errol Banner) and another fighter twice (Christian Cruz).  As a result, these three fighters account for 7 of Cortes’ wins.  Additionally, last night’s opponent, Paulino Avitia, had been knocked out in 5 of his last 6 fights while 9 of his 13 wins were against fighters who had never won a fight.   It will be very interesting to see how Cortes fares against better opposition and additional experience in the ring. 

All-Action War between Lightweights

In the most exciting fight of the evening, lightweight and San Jose native Arturo Quintero won a 6 round unanimous decision over Ulises Pena.  From the opening bell, both fighters came out very aggressively, throwing a large number of punches.  Pena landed some good shots in the 2^nd round, slowing Quintero down just a bit. At the end of the second round, the crowd was standing and cheering wildly due to the action-packed pace of the fight.   Quintero began to be very effective in the 4^th round and ended up knocking Pena down twice in the round.  Pena managed to survive the round and make it to his corner. 

Surprisingly, Pena started the 5^th round very strong and applied a lot of pressure to Quintero.   Just when it looked like Pena was back in the fight, Quintero knocked Pena down for the third time in the fight with a solid right-left combination.  Both fighters fell to the canvas but the referee correctly ruled it a knockdown.  After 6 rounds, the judges had it 58-54, 58-53 and 59-52, all for Arturo Quintero.  With the decision, Quintero improves his record to 15-4, 9 KOs while Pena slips to 14-6, 4 KOs. 

Fight Results:

Ricardo Cortes (19-1-1, 14 KO's) def. Paulino Avitia (13-7, 9 KO's)...KO Rd. 2.
Eliza Olson (10-5-3, 2 KO's) def. Mariam Brakache (4-4, 1 KO)...UD Rd. 6.
Arturo Quintero (15-4, 9 KO's) def. Ulises Pena (14-6, 4 KO's)...UD Rd. 6.
Teke Oruh (11-0-1, 5 KO's) def. Shaun Ross (3-5, 1 KO)...UD Rd. 4.
Hector Martinez (4-1, 4 KO's) def. Marvin Whitlock (0-1)...KO Rd. 1.

Attendance: 2,448
 

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A very special thanks to the HP Tank and (Public Relations) Jim Sparaco