War at Woodland Hills 8
The third fight and the night's best was a 4-round battle of two southpaws between Denver native, Shawn Nichol and Carson, CA fighter, Raymond Chacon. In the first round, Chacon seemed to be putting in the better work, but Nichol's left cross found his chin and knocked Chacon down late to make it a 10-8 round for Nichol. The second round was a virtual shutout for Chacon, who dominated a seemingly gassed-out Nichol. The third round was truly a delight to behold for any boxing fan, with both fighters striving to be the aggressor and brawling as if in a phone booth. After a furious exchange of blows, an exhausted Nichol managed to land a short right jab powerful enough to put Chacon down on the canvas for the second time that evening. Chacon got up well before the count and retaliated quickly, landing a barrage of uppercuts on Nichol's chin, which was seemingly made of granite. Later in the round, Chacon came on strong, backing an exhausted Nichol up and with the crowd cheering him on, it looked as though Chacon was about to score a knock-down at the very least. What transpired however, was a shock to the crowd as Chacon found himself down on the canvas yet again with 7 seconds left in the round after Nichol dug down deep and somehow dispatched a powerful left cross with pinpoint accuracy. The fourth round was an all-out brawl with brilliant exchanges between the two fighters and Chacon trying his hardest to knock Nichol out, but Nichol's legs and chin held up, giving him the win by unanimous decision.
"I was exhausted from the 2nd round on," admitted Nichol, "I even told the guy {Chacon} that!" Having taken this fight with one day's notice, the young fighter admits he wasn't in his best shape. "This just lets me know I gotta get back in the gym and get in shape," he modestly states, however in his current condition he managed to score three knock-downs against a hometown favorite and win the fight. Though he has a losing record of 6-10, a fact he attributes to never taking an easy fight and only fighting the best in his division, Shawn Nichol is a fun fighter to watch and packs a mighty punch, even boasting a first-punch knockout during his 4th professional bout (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S2tJJiUTiPs).
Local favorite, Tyrell "Hollywood" Hendrix advanced his record to 8-1-2 over Fresno, CA's Loren Myers, 8-16-1in their 6-round bout. Scoring knock-downs in each of the first three rounds, Hendrix went on to win by unanimous decision. "There's some things I still need to work on, like my jab," admits Hendrix, "I want to really tighten it up because it can be really effective." Though his corner urged him to work Myers' body, Hendrix seemed to land the majority of his shots upstairs. "The guy was a lot shorter than me, which made it hard to go to the body. I didn't want my guard to go down so far and risk getting hit with a counter, plus I was landing hard shots to his head, so I kept going with that."
The main event of the evening was between Los Angeles, CA's "Prince" Cleotis "Mookie" Pendarvis and Denver, CO's "Red Hot" Robert Frankel in a 12-round fight for the vacant USBA Light Welterweight title and Frankel's WBC USNBC Light Welterweight title. Pendarvis started strong, dominating the first four rounds with lightning speed and accuracy, but Frankel came on in the fifth round, forcing very close rounds from then on. Frankel showed a lot of heart throughout the battle, walking through some tough shots and doing his level best to overwhelm Pendarvis with a volume of punches, but Pendarvis was agile and accurate throughout the battle, and with the early rounds paying off, Pendarvis won the fight impressively by unanimous decision, earning him two titles and an improved record of 14-3-2.
It was a great evening of boxing and comedy with three respective comedians performing throughout the night to entertain the crowd and "Repo" Rick Hypeman hyping up the crowd and playfully smack-talking for two blue-corner fighters. The 'War at Woodland Hills' series truly is local boxing at it's best.