It’s no surprise boxing promoters know that booking one of the Four Corners’ two most established fighters for a weekend card somewhere in the region generally equates to a successful venture.
Area outfit Left Hook Promotions sought to score both for its ‘Fright Night’ lineup Saturday, Oct. 29, at Sky Ute Casino Resort Events Center in Ignacio, and feature both La Plata County local Elco Garcia and Aztec, New Mexico’s Joe Gomez amongst several other locally- and regionally-known names.
Monday via phone, however, Gomez (20-7-1, 9 KO) confirmed he’d unfortunately be sitting this one out.
“I was supposed to be fighting Stevie Marquez – he was my third professional fight, I think?” said the ‘Ironman,’ correctly recalling the 2004 encounter against an opponent who’s won five straight bouts since last May.
“But my wife and I, we had our little boy on the first. There was some complications and our boy was flown to Albuquerque. And we’ve been down here pretty much since, and I’m down here now.”
“So it was hard to postpone the fight, you know,” he continued, “but I’ve got a bigger ‘fight’ on my hands.”
The Land of Enchantment’s Duke City was where Garcia last saw action – on August 15 of last year, when he notched a unanimous-decision victory over Rahman Yusubov in a rematch of their January 2013 SUCREC pairing (which Garcia took via TKO).
Defeating Yusubov (now 11-24, 9 KO) again bumped ‘The Animal’ up to 29-9 (13 KO) as a professional, putting him on the verge of another, non-title-related personal milestone he said he’d most like to reach.
“I said I’m going to fight one more – maybe more – but I want to get thirty wins, you know?” he said Monday via phone. “That’s my goal – get thirty wins, and go from there!”
That certainly would also go towards achieving another objective.
Garcia’s last bout in Ignacio occurred last May, and before exiting the ring he visibly wasn’t satisfied with the split decision awarded him over Patrick Thompson (currently 18-19-1, 8 KO), so a solid eight-round performance at 170 pounds against Juan Bladimir Hernandez (20-11) in the main event would indeed erase most memories of that outing.
“It’s going to be a really tough fight; this guy’s 25 years old, or 27, you know?” said Garcia, with a laugh. “He’s young and has a pretty good record.”
Filling Gomez’s spot against Marquez (now 14-17-2) in the preceding bout, billed for eight at 154, will be Daniel Gonzalez (12-39-2). Slated for four rounds at 150 – with an extra pound allowed – will be Zamir Young (2-1-1, 1 no contest) and Miguel Gallegos (4-0-1), and fellow familiar Steve Victor (1-6-1) will stand in for four at 150 against well-traveled vet Edgar Pedraza (2-25-3).
First bell is scheduled for 7 p.m.