Thrills, spills highlight ‘Melee'

Those who attended Saturday night’s “Melee at McDermont,” the first professional, six-bout event in Lindsay’s McDermont Field House, pretty much got their money’s worth: skilled boxing, a knockout and even some blood, (for the more violently inclined).

“For our first go in Lindsay, I was very impressed,” said two-time world champion Fernando Vargas, who promoted the fight in conjunction with Roy Englebrecht Promotions. “We knew Lindsay was a town that was pretty much starving for something like this.”

Lindsay native Rigo Espinoza, one of the more popular fighters judging by the crowd’s response, suffered a rude welcome in his pro debut fight versus Cudahy’s Cesar Flores. Just before the end of the first round, an accidental headbutt from Flores opened a gash above Espinoza’s left eye, forcing the ringside doctor to discontinue the fight.

That set the tone for the night’s second bout between Visalia’s Jose Garcia and San Diego’s David Clark. The 123-pounders attacked one another relentlessly for most of two rounds.

Clark knocked down Garcia twice early in the second and, sensing his opponent was dazed, went for the finish with a bevy of punches that instantly dropped Garcia to the canvas at 2:02 in the second round.

The rest of the evening’s fights were won by decisions, culminating with a thrilling main event between Delano’s Paul Mendez and a much older Mario Ortiz, out of Orange. The 21-year-old Mendez entered with five fights to his credit while Ortiz had 18 (9-9 record with eight KO’s) under his belt.

Ortiz certainly held his own, slipping flashes of power that even sent Mendez tumbling to the corner late in the third round.

“I’ve never been dropped in my life,” Mendez said afterward. “It didn’t count as a knockdown, but he pushed me and I fell back.”

Mendez used his speed to his advantage and closed out the fourth round with a flurry of shots to Ortiz’s body that sent him stumbling and left no doubt for the judges, who awarded Mendez a 39-37, 40-36, 39-37 unanimous decision.

“I thought I could’ve been better,” Mendez said afterward. “I perform better when the pressure’s applied to me. I should’ve went for the kill early.”

Mendez improved to 5-1 overall and will next fight in Lemoore on July 23..

Looking to bring his record to an even 2-2, Long Beach’s Anthony Wheaton turned in one of the more energetic performances of the night by dancing circles around Watsonville’s Oscar Godoy.

Wheaton’s high-spirited attack in the first round seemed to leave him winded for the second round as Godoy responded with several holds and even appeared to escape a rabbit punch to the back of Wheaton’s head.

Wheaton eventually won by split decision, 39-37, 37-39, 39-37, as Godoy dropped to 1-1 before a crowd of 1,072.

“I think it was a great turnout and this is something we wanna do again,” said Vargas, who is planning a mixed martial arts event in October at McDermont.

In the third fight on the undercard, Visalia’s Jose Leon received a cut around his left eye from Hesperia’s Jacob Alvarez in both of their pro debuts. Leon eventually hung on for a unanimous 40-36, 40-36, 39-37 decision.

Crowd favorite and Lindsay native Stephan Rubalcava came up short in his debut against Salinas’ Adolfo Gonzalez — also a first-timer.

Both began the first round conservatively, but Gonzalez showed more poise and experience against Rubalcava, who never participated in amateur fights.

As if preserving his energy, Rubalcava finally came out aggressively in the third round, but to no avail as the judges gave Gonzalez a unanimous 40-36 score on all three cards.

“It was a brawl,” Vargas said. “Everbody was at the edge of their seats, jumping up and down until the final bell.”