Fights take over for OC Fair
After the Orange County Fair ended Sunday, the cleanup began to put on a different show on the fairgrounds. The organizers of the event went to Twitter on Tuesday to update fans on the venue’s progress.
“By Thursday,” read a tweet, followed by a link to a photo of two big moving trucks inside The Hangar, and wires running everywhere, “this mess will turn to masterpiece!”
The fourth edition of this year’s Fight Club OC series at the OC Fair & Event Center in Costa Mesa looks to entertain a sold-out crowd of 1,500 on Thursday. The six-bout card is scheduled to start at 7:30 p.m. and feature three professional boxing fights and three pro mixed martial arts fights.
Roy Englebrecht, the Newport Beach-based promoter, is pumping his latest Fight Club OC event. There are two big fights on tap, an MMA welterweight one between Fullerton’s Curtis Millender (2-0) and Bakersfield’s J.C. Llamas (4-1), and a women’s boxing one between Rowland Heights’ Rhonda Luna (17-3-2) and Oxnard’s Crystal Morales (7-9-1).
The MMA fight is the featured bout of the evening, but the women are fighting for the vacant International Female Boxers Assn. World Lightweight title.
Luna and Morales faced each other in June during a Fight Club OC show, with Luna scoring a unanimous decision after six rounds. They are scheduled to go 10 rounds in the rematch.
Morales, who has gone the distance in all of her 17 fights, has never been involved in a 10-round fight.
Luna has 10-round experience, fighting in five. Her results haven’t been the best in those, going 1-3-1 and suffering her three career losses.
The last time Luna went 10 rounds was on April 16, 2011, which also marked the date of her last fight before meeting Morales two months ago. She looked rusty against Morales, and Morales did as well.
Morales made her return to the ring last year after a five-year hiatus. She won a 2012 fight by unanimous decision, ending a string of four losses.
In Morales’ first fight of 2013, she hung with Luna, until the 35-year-old Luna finished rounds stronger. Luna is older than Morales, who turned 29 on July 29.
Morales hopes to celebrate her birthday a little late with a victory against Luna on Thursday.
The rest of Thursday’s card has Fullerton’s Jack May (4-0) against San Diego’s Keishaun Hill (1-0) in an MMA heavyweight bout. The matchup is between tall fighters, as May is 6-foot-8 and Hill 6-5.
The other MMA fight has two bantamweights, Anaheim’s Mauricio Diaz (1-0) against Bell Gardens’ Jose Huerta, who is making his debut.
In boxing action, Anaheim’s Dwain Victorian (1-0) meets Riverside’s Ricardo Cubias (0-4) in a super lightweight fight. John Hays (3-0-1), a super welterweight from Los Angeles, goes against Victorville’s Donte Stower (0-2).