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Celaya scores a one-punch KO win in the 1st round
9/15/07 By: Jeff Townsend,
Boxing writer Bayareasportsdrive.com
To see Walker be knocked out so quickly was not that surprising since he has been knocked out 11 times in his career. On top of this, a lot of his knockout losses have occurred within the first three rounds. When Walker has won fights, it is usually against very weak Midwest opposition. To illustrate, Walker has only beaten three fighters with winning records out of his 21 wins. The fight was billed as a 10 round junior middleweight (154) bout but it could more accurately be described as a middleweight (160) fight. The contract weight was 158 pounds, with Walker coming in right at 158 while Celaya came in at 156. Several years ago, Celaya was campaigning at welterweight (147) when he looked to be a legit contender. Ever since his two knockout losses, Celaya has been weighing around 154 for his more recent fights This was Celaya’s fourth fight on the comeback trail after having been knocked out in a brutal fashion by James ‘Spider’ Webb two years ago. Since that loss, he has decision wins against three fighters, all of whom had losing records. The records of these past three opponents were: 8-16, 4-9-3 and 9-10-2. It will be interesting to see what happens when Celaya fights a quality opponent who will test him in the ring. Chuy’s cut forces the fight to be stopped
Since the referee ruled that the cut over Chuy’s left eye was from an accidental head butt, the judge’s scorecards were tallied in order to determine the outcome. The judges scored the fight 40-37, 40-36 and 39-37, giving Chuy a unanimous technical decision win. The first three rounds were entertaining, with the fighters involved in some good exchanges. Chuy possesses very good boxing skills and is usually very effective at controlling the action with his jab, volume of punches and his ability to keep the proper distance from his opponent. However, Esalas didn’t allow Chuy to exhibit his superior boxing skills. He came after Chuy and encouraged the free-swinging exchanges that were plentiful in their short fight. Chuy Rodriguez continues to be very active since this was his 12th fight in the last three years and he already seems to have a couple of fights scheduled in the near future. However, the cut he suffered may postpone some of those fight plans, depending on the severity of the cut and the healing process. Attendance at the HP Pavilion for the American Metal & Iron Fight Night at the Tank was 3,599. Email Jeff with questions or comments at jtownsend@bayareasportsdrive.com
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Former
contender Jose Celaya (30-3, 16 KOs) from Salinas, California needed
just two minutes of the first round to knockout Steve Walker (21-16,
15 KOs) from Missouri in an explosive junior middleweight fight at the
HP Pavilion in San Jose, California. The first hard punch that Celaya
threw connected to Walker’s chin, sending him to the canvas
immediately. Since Walker was not moving at all, the referee did not
even bother to begin a count and called an end to the fight. 
Celaya
surprised many at ringside by starting the bout fighting out of the
orthodox stance. Celaya has always fought as a southpaw and is known
for possessing very good boxing skills. After the first minute of
the fight, he switched back to his trademark southpaw style and
continued to work behind his jab. Surprisingly, Celaya switched back
to orthodox after a short period of time, just as he had started the
fight. It was seconds later that Celaya landed one hard, straight
right hand to Walker’s chin. It was ‘light’s out’ and the fight was
over.
In
the co-main event, Jesus ‘Chuy’ Rodriguez (16-2, 5 KOs) from Salinas,
California had to settle for a four round technical decision win over
Dario Jose Esalas (29-10, 24 KOs) from Columbia due to an accidental
head butt. The scheduled eight round junior welterweight fight was
stopped at 60 seconds of the fourth round after the ringside doctor
determined that Chuy’s cut was severe enough to necessitate the
stoppage.