Boxing: Bennett knows he can do better

As a kid, the most memorable parties for Reece Bennett involved fighting. The fighting took place at home, on the family TV set, which had on boxing.

Those boxing parties his family hosted in San Clemente are what Bennett remembers most. Every big pay-per-view fight, the Bennetts ordered it.

Bennett comes from a boxing family, his father, Chet, and his grandfather, Chester, fought professionally. Bennett always hoped to be a pro boxer like them.

Ten days after he turned 26 on March 23, Bennett got his birthday wish, his first pro fight. The family boxing parties now involve Bennett in the ring. His family watches him fight not far from where Bennett grew up.

Family and friends gathered in Costa Mesa on Thursday for Bennett’s second pro fight. The venue was the same one he made his debut at two months ago.

This time around, the result at Fight Club OC wasn’t the same for Bennett. The 6-foot-4 super middleweight is still unbeaten, but he left without the decision he wanted inside the Hangar at the OC Fair & Event Center.

Bennett and Henry Calles Jr. fought to a majority draw. There would be no winner after four rounds, leaving some of the 1,511 fans yelling for a rematch.

Promoter and Newport Beach resident Roy Englebrecht said the size of the crowd is the largest in the five-year history of Fight Club OC. He can thank Bennett for bringing 150 fans to support him.

Support is something Bennett appreciates. Support from loved ones has helped Bennett change his life for the better.

For three years, Bennett said he was addicted to heroin and the drug came close to ruining his life, almost sending him away to jail for 6 1/2 years.

Bennett said he has been clean since July 1, 2009. Since then, he has turned things around.

Bennett said he graduated summa cum laude from UC Irvine last year. He plans to go back to school to become a lawyer, saying he already took the LSAT, scoring in the 92nd percentile.

Before he fights for clients, Bennett wants to fight with his hands.

Boxing has always been his true passion. He excelled in the sport at an early age, working with Jesse Reid, a Hall of Fame trainer, and becoming a California Golden Gloves champion in the novice division in 2006, when he was 17.

Bennett isn’t a youngster anymore. At his age, he’s old for someone who only has two pro bouts under his belt. But against the fighter Bennett faced from Goleta on Thursday, Bennett sure looked young.

Calles showed some gray in his hair. Yet, the 38-year-old Calles exchanged blows with Bennett in the first round, Calles mostly wide ones. Bennett appeared to hurt Calles early, when Calles was the aggressor.

The second round saw more action, the two striking each other in the head and body. Toward the end of the round, Calles began to wobble. The younger fighter kept attacking. What saved Calles was the bell.

The “Reece!” chants began in the third round, a few seconds before Calles almost pushed Bennett out of the ring. The ropes kept Bennett in, but Calles applied pressure, while Bennett stayed on the ropes. Bennett admits that staying on the ropes and trying to counter is a bad habit of his.

In the fourth and final round, both fighters looked gassed. At the end, Bennett believed he earned the win. One judge scored the bout 39-37 in favor of Bennett, while the other two had it at 38-38.

Afterward, Calles (1-0-2) told Bennett, “The reason you got a draw was because it was your hometown.” Bennett wasn’t buying it.

“We all saw the fight,” Bennett said. “He wants to hype himself up, but he can get it any time, any place. He already knows that. Let’s do [a rematch]. I have no doubt in my mind that was not my best [performance]. I think we all know that. We all saw my last fight [that resulted in a unanimous decision against Fernando Najera on April 2].”

Bennett said he plans to be on the next Fight Club OC card on Aug. 27. The opponent is up in the air. What is not is that Bennett’s family and friends will show up in large numbers again to see Bennett fight.

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•The opening fight of a six-bout boxing card featured Timothy Lee, and because of the welterweight from Los Angeles, it failed to go past the first round.

Lee started his pro career with a technical knockout, stopping Steven Chad McKinney at the 1:48 mark. Three times Lee dropped McKinney (1-3) with right-handed shots.

Lee was the first of two straight boxers from the Mayweather Boxing Club to enter the ring. The other, Thomas Hill, wasn’t as successful early on in his super welterweight fight, but the 21-year-old remained undefeated.

Rick Graham, who’s from Detroit, caught Hill in the third round with a blow near the back of the head, causing Hill to go down. Hill rose up, finishing the round, before going the distance with the 29-year-old Graham (3-7-2) to earn a six-round majority decision and improve to 4-0.

The other three boxing bouts saw Long Beach’s Malcolm McAllister, Lancaster’s Kevin Watts and Fresno’s Mark Anthony Hernandez stay undefeated. McAllister (4-0) knocked out Lanny Dardar (2-4-2) in the first round of a supper middleweight fight, while Watts (8-0) earned a six-round majority decision in a super lightweight fight against Farkhad Sharipov (4-2) and Hernandez (6-0) pulled out a six-round unanimous decision against Santa Ana welterweight Gabriel Lopez (3-2).

There were two mixed martial arts fights. Huntington Beach welterweight Ozzie Alvarez (6-2) beat Irvine’s Steve Ciaccio (4-3) with an arm-triangle choke submission in the first round. Alex Suhonosov (2-3), who’s from Lancaster, defeated Fullerton’s Trevor Clapper (1-1) by unanimous decision. All three judges’ scorecards had him winning, 29-28.