By David Finger
For boxing fans in Southeast New Mexico, the focus of Saturday night’s fight card at the Lea County Event Center was undoubtedly on the three local fighters from Hobbs, New Mexico who were making their professional debuts in front of their hometown crowd. But for boxing fans in general, the small School of Hard Knocks Promotions boxing show that went up against both the Usyk-Fury PPV fight and a pair of college football playoff games, was on their radar for a different reason. Making his professional debut was a young fighter from Odessa, Texas whom many consider to be the Lone Star State’s top prospect and a surefire future world champion in welterweight Josh Franco.
Franco, a four time nation amateur champion and former #1 ranked national amateur, had little trouble as he dispatched one of the local fighters in Rony “The Last Ronin” Liranzo, 142, in two rounds. For boxing fans ringside, any hope that the local boy could pull off an Appalachian State like upset over the highly touted Franco, 145.4, was quickly dashed as soon as the opening bell kicked off the fight. Franco boxed intelligently to start the fight, looking to counterpunch his game, but clearly inexperienced, opponent. A two punch combination to the face sent Liranzo to the canvas in the opening minute, and although it was ruled a slip, there was no question that Franco had rattled his opponent with the barrage. Liranzo, lacking the experience to fight out of trouble, resorted to a wild charge that resulted in both men stumbling to the canvas, prompting referee Alan Dominguez to warn Liranzo not to “charge him”. An overhand left from the southpaw Franco followed, badly wobbling the Hobbs native, and another lightning fast combination followed that. The ease of landing big punches pushed Franco to up the pressure, and he threw a quick two punch combination upstairs that sent Liranzo to the canvas with less than 15 seconds left in the round. Liranzo got up on wobbly legs and was quickly felled again in the closing seconds of the round with a right hand. Although it looked like the end of the night for Liranzo, he was able to rise right before the referee reached the count of ten and as the bell ended the round.
However, round two saw little change in the fortunes of the Hobbs boxer as Franco began the round with another vicious combination that send him to the canvas in the opening seconds of the round. Seeing that their fighter was completely outmatched and visibly hurt, Ronin’s corner surrendered, prompting referee Alan Dominguez to waves off the contest at 0:43 of the second round.
“It was all part of the game plan,” Franco said after the fight about his dominant performance. “Feel him out in the first, I knew we’d get him out in the second.”
Liranzo, who like Franco was making his professional debut, sees his record now stand at 0-1.
In the co-main event, another talented young amateur standout from Texas, Damian Nieland, 166.6, kicked off his professional debut in equally successful fashion as he stopped the surprisingly game Gabriel Martinez, 166.4, of El Paso. Nieland, who won the Lubbock regional Golden Gloves tournament in 2023 and fought in the Texas State Championships, was originally slated to fight a 73-fight veteran in Larry Smith. However he ended up having to settle for the little known Martinez when the Smith fight fell through at the last minute. But although the assumption was that Martinez would be a downgrade, someone apparently forgot to tell the El Paso fighter. Early in the fight Nieland boxed intelligently from the outside, utilizing his long reach advantage and his solid jab. After Martinez complained to referee Daniel Sandoval about being hit on top of his head (neither Sandoval nor this writer saw any infraction) he was subsequently taken to the ringside physician and some ringsiders worried that the El Paso fighter was looking for an opportunity to quit. The fight had all the makings of a mismatch as Martinez seemed genuinely confused about how to conduct himself in the boxing ring, and perhaps sensing that his opponent didn’t know what he was doing, Nieland decided to abandon the cautious approach and proceeded to unload on Martinez once the action resumed.
It was apparently just the wakeup call Martinez needed as he stood there and threw real punches with the former amateur standout. Although Nieland was winning the exchanges, and landing some heavy blows to the body of Martinez, he was also getting clipped by some solid counterpunches as well, and as the opening round came to a close, both Nieland and the fans knew that they had a fight on their hands.
As round two kicked off, Nieland showed a bit more respect towards the gritty Martinez, but his advantage in size and talent was still the deciding factor in the exchanges. Perhaps most notably, it was clear that Nieland’s corner recognized how effective the body attack was and instructed the Levelland native to use it more in round two, something he wisely followed through on. A devastating body shot dropped Martinez’s hands for just a second, opening up his chin for a picture perfect right hand that badly wobbled him. Referee Daniel Sandoval didn’t wait for a third punch as he jumped in and stopped the fight as Martinez stumbled forward into Sandoval. Although Martinez complained about the stoppage, there was little question that he was badly hurt. Nonetheless, Martinez certainly won over a lot of fans and ringsiders with his grit and determination. With the loss, Martinez drops to 0-1 while Nieland improves to 1-0 (1).
In the main event, Hobbs native Austin Voight, 159.8, destroyed Daniel Arriaga, 155.4, stopping him at 1:04 of the second round. Voight, who was making his professional debut, appeared to have a relatively safe opponent in Arriaga, who was coming into the fight with a 0-6 record in boxing and a 0-1 record in bare-knuckle boxing. As Arriaga had been stopped in all seven of his pro fights, most ringsiders assumed that Voight would come out on top. But with limited amateur experience, the question was how he would look against the experienced, albeit winless, Arriaga.
Well the answer was pretty darn good.
Fighting out of a southpaw stance, Voight dropped Arriaga early in the opening round with a solid combination upstairs. Although Arriaga rose from the knockdown and tried to fire back with some heavy punches of his own, he was quickly dropped a second time when another hard punch upstairs send the Texan reeling into the ropes. As referee Stan Saavedra legitimately recognized that the ropes were the only reason Arraiga didn’t hit the canvas, he correctly called it a knockdown. With two knockdowns in the opening round, Arriaga decided to try and ride out the storm, prompting Voight to invest in body shots as opposed to head hunting. Although Arriaga survived the round, the veteran move of going to the body as opposed to wildly looking for a knockout, showed a level of professionalism in Voight that didn’t bode well for Arriaga’s chances going forward. With Voight stalking Arriaga in the second round, Voight continued to attack the body, which in turn set up the perfect left hand counter that dropped Arriaga in the opening minute of the second. Although Arriaga got up, a second counter right hand sent him back to the canvas a few seconds later and referee Saavedra wisely waved off the fight at 1:04 of the second round.
“It feels amazing,” Voight said after winning his professional debut in front of his hometown fans. “I love my city, I love Hobbs!”
Rounding off the card was another debuting local fighter in middleweight Joseph Garcia. Much like Voight, Garcia was a fighter with limited amateur experience who seemed to have drawn a moderately safe opponent for his professional debut in the winless Larry Sanchez Jr. from Midland. Sanchez, who had never made it past the second round in any of his six professional fights (five were knockout losses and one ended in a no-contest) may have been expected to lose to the debuting New Mexican, but someone apparently forgot to tell him. Garcia, 159.6, appeared supremely confident as he entered the ring, walking up to Sanchez, 160, and stomping his feet loudly as he stood right in front of the Texan in an apparent attempt to intimidate his opponent. But the veteran Sanchez was completely unfazed and quickly took control of the fight from the opening bell. Sanchez had little trouble landing upstairs and, recognizing that his opponent had little defense against the right hand, Sanchez began to unload on the Hobbs native and dropped him with a three punch combination upstairs. The visibly rattled Garcia seemed at a loss as to what to do as he got up on wobbly legs, and although referee Stan Saavedra had a long discussion with him as to if he wanted to continue, Garcia seemed unable or unwilling to give Saavedra a sign that he could. Referee Saavedra elected to wave the fight off at 2:52 of the opening round, giving Sanchez the fight professional win of his career.
Opening the fight card was a heavyweight fight featuring Brazilian heavyweight prospect, 252.4, against debuting David Cody Murillo, 220, of Las Cruces. Dos Santos, who now fights out of Amarillo, Texas, who was fighting in his second professional fight, had little trouble with the smaller New Mexican, dropping him twice in the opening round. A third knockdown in the opening seconds of the second round promoted referee Daniel Sandoval to wisely wave off the fight at 0:58 of the round. With the win Dos Santos improves to 2-0, 2 KOs.
