Roy Englebrecht’s Battle in the Ballroom boxing series, held at the Irvine Marriott, is now in its 24th year. The polish accrued from 24 years of experience was on display on Thursday night. Roy is a man who knows his audience. In addition to four highly competitive bouts, there were also the novelties that seem to be necessary to keep an Orange County sporting crowd entertained. The card featured a mother-daughter ring card girl tandem, as well as married couple Ricky and Ana Tangaro fighting on the same card.
The opening bout put the aforementioned Ricky again Efren Lopez in what was the professional debut for both fighters. While the bout was not a shining example of technical boxing, it was perhaps the best fight I have ever witnessed in person. The opening stanza featured both fighters trading heavy leather at a pace that seemed certain to result in a knockout. This feeling was only enforced when Efren landed a blow that dropped Tangaro in the second. Remarkably the pace only increased from there. As Lopez smelled blood and Tangaro realized he was behind on the cards, both fighters continued to stay aggressive and throw big punches. Ricky Tangaro came perilously close to dropping Lopez in the fourth, but the Bakersfield fighter was able to stay on his feet after stumbling backwards several steps. The bout ended and Lopez was awarded a unanimous decision as money showered the ring.
The second bout of the evening was another scorcher. Angel Magdaleno and Jose Pacheco both launched punches with bad intentions for twelve minutes. Despite Magdaleno appearing to consistently land the cleaner shots the bout ended in a puzzling majority draw.
The only women’s bout of the evening featured Ana Tangaro getting a win over Michelle Nelson. After a feeling out process in the first Tangaro was able to use her reach and technical superiority to control the fight and earn a well-deserved unanimous decision.
The main event managed to maintain the momentum of the evening. In the first title fight held at the Battle in the Ballroom series. Fernando Quintero earned a unanimous decision over Luis Alberto Cervantes. In a high-paced and very competitive bout Quintero kept his undefeated record intact by managing to consistently land the cleaner shots over the course of the bout.
Despite having only four bouts instead of the usual six, excellent matchmaking by Arnold Berber was able to create a highly entertaining night of fights. Although there were no knockouts all four of the fights featured bell to bell action and left the audience on the edges of their seats the entire night. Very solid showing from the veteran promotion.