In Coachella Valley, the crowd was on their toes, hollering for their local hero, Jose “Tito” Sanchez (12-0, 7 KOs). Tito duked it out toe-to-toe with the resilient Walter Santibanes (12-3, 2 KOs) from Phoenix, Arizona. After ten rounds of featherweight fireworks, Tito snagged the win, with the judges all nodding in agreement: 99-91, 99-91, and 98-92.
Tito Sanchez, buzzing from the win, threw some love to Golden Boy and Miguel Cotto Promotions. “Fighting in front of my home crowd for the first time was like stepping into a war zone,” he said. “The crowd’s roars fueled me, even when my right middle knuckle screamed ‘no more’ in the third round. But with Coachella Valley in my corner, I pushed through to grab that win.”
The co-main event was a blink-and-you-miss-it affair. Eric Priest (12-0, 8 KOs) of Kansas City, Missouri, unleashed a thunderous left hook on Paul Mendez (21-5-2, 11 KOs) from Las Vegas, Nevada, sending him crashing down. Priest swarmed him with a barrage, and at 2:09, the ref had seen enough, waving it off.
Eric Priest wasn’t shy about his victory lap. “I tweaked my game after the last fight, and boom – knockout city,” he said. “Training in Vegas, rubbing shoulders with the elite, has sharpened my game. Middleweight division, better start remembering my name.”
Making waves as the new Golden Boy fighter, San Diego’s Jorge Chavez (9-0, 7 KOs) stopped Jerson Ortiz (17-10, 8 KOs) from Managua, Nicaragua, in his tracks. Chavez floored Ortiz in the second round, and Ortiz’s corner threw in the towel right after.
Ventura’s Ricardo Ruvalcaba (11-0-1, 9 KOs) went toe-to-toe with Monterrey, Mexico’s Irvin Macias (15-4, 10 KOs). After eight rounds of welterweight warfare, the judges unanimously tipped their hats to Ruvalcaba, scoring 80-72, 78-74, and 80-72.
Kicking off the DAZN show, Justin “Just-in-time” Figueroa (7-0, 6 KOs) from Atlantic City, New Jersey, put Jerome Clayton (3-3-1, 3 KOs) of Metairie, Louisiana, to bed with a third-round knockout. Figueroa called it a day at 1:57 in the third.
Starting the night with a bang, Fabian Guzman (3-0, 3 KOs) from Orange, CA, sent Rueben Johnson (0-4) from Milwaukee, Wisconsin, packing with a second-round knockout. Johnson hit the deck early in the second, and Guzman closed the show at 2:01, with the ref stepping in to save Johnson from more trouble.