Texas Boxing RJJ Promotions 12/1/18: Battle In San Antonio
Article by: Antoine Williams

The main event brought together two outstanding prospects with the goal of determining a real contender in the Super Lightweight division. First San Antonio native Kendo “Tremendo” Castaneda and Gilbert Venegas in a 10 round bout fought at super-lightweight, for the WBO-NABA Title at Super-Lightweight. Castaneda came into the bout with an excellent record of 14 wins and 0 losses while Venegas Jr came into the ring with a record of 10 wins and 0 losses.
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The Scottish Rite Theater in San Antonio is becoming one of the best homes to the sweet science in the Lone Star State. Saturday night featured 8 matches total and Promoted by RJJ Promotions and Streamed live on Facebook on Fight Night Live. The San Antonio native Kendo Castaneda put on a spectacular and dominating performance taking apart, Gilbert Venegas Jr over 10 brutal rounds. Venegas who pulled an upset over another San Antonian, Armando Cardenas at the same venue back in September. Venegas was trying to pull off another upset with Castaneda in beating two locals in less than three months, but it was not to be, he was never able to get past or stop the right hand of Castaneda. Tremondo’s right-hand was the story of the night, he could not miss with it, landing it sharply and accurately at will throughout the entire ten rounds. Castaneda put on an offensive masterpiece going upstairs with a hard stiff jab and targeting Venegas throughout with vicious body shots. At one point in round five Tremendo landed three consecutive lightning quick body shots. If Venegas was thought to have an advantage in the hand speed department that was not the case. He was constantly beat to the punch. The crowd cheered their hometown hero on with chants of “Kendo-Kendo-Kendo” to which the San Antonio fighter responded to by staggering Venegas in the sixth. The final few rounds all looked the same as Castaneda dominated the action with brutal right hands and took a lopsided decision winning all 10 rounds on one of the three scorecards to capture vacant WBA-NABA Super Lightweight Title.
In the post-fight interview Castaneda said his opponent Venegas was relying on his left and showing it early so he just avoided it from the beginning. When questioned about stepping up to the next level Castaneda replied, “He is ready” adding “He wanted to fight anyone in the top 10 in the 140-pound division.” When asked who he wanted to fight next he said, “I’m willing to fight anyone in the top 10” adding “This is going to be a big year for me and Roy Jones Jr Promotions, to expect big things.” Castaneda is trained by former WBC 130 Super Featherweight Champion Jesse James Leija.
In the co-main event, the incredible story of Luis Villarreal, the 42-year old engineer, picked up version of the ABF Middleweight title putting in a dominating performance over Michael Klekotta and picking up a fourth-round stoppage. Villareal, who is originally from Houston, relocated just 2 hours up the road. The San Antonio fighter dropped his hands and used spectacular head movement making his opponent miss shot after shot while countering with his own power shots. Those power shots scored him multiple knockdowns in the four round destruction stoppage win over Klekotta. With the loss, Klekotta record dropped to 2-4.
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Xavier “Professor X” Wilson who surprisingly at the weigh-in came in a few pounds heavy on the scales ran his record to 9-0-1 by handing in a masterpiece in outclassing the previous 2-4 Gelacio Cruz from Mcallen, TX. Wilson used his snappy jab to win the battle at long range and landed beautiful combinations showing off the hand speed to win the battle in the mid-range. It was a technical masterpiece put on by “Professor X” that culminated about mid-way through the fourth and final round when Wilson rocked his man with a perfect right hand that put Cruz on wobbly legs. Cruz was able to hang tough and finish out the round but managed only to win one round on one judge’s card.
The preliminary bouts featured a hot-shot youngster by the name of Richard Medina, who is promoted by Prince Ranch Boxing and has former Heavyweight Champ Hasim Rahman by his side. Medina scored a second-round knockout over Jorge De Leon to run his record to 2-0 (2KOs). 47-year old Christopher Martinez made his professional debut a successful one in taking down the 280lb unbeaten Mathew Glover in just two rounds. After landing many heavy punches on Glover’s face, the fighter turned his back acting as if maybe he got poked in the eye and the fight was waived off by the referee in the 2nd round.
Hometown San Antonio fan favorite and people champ, Dogberto Navarez, continued his unbeaten streak against a tougher than expected Stetson Horne. Horne of Elgin, Texas, was 0-2 entering Saturday’s fight with Navarez, and wasn’t expected to last very long, but not only did Horne go all four rounds Horne was successful in making it a scrap. Navarez was loading up looking to end the night with one big right hand but Horne had his moments with counter left-hooks and made Navarez pay the price a few times. However, at the end of the day Horne’s courageous performance wasn’t enough against the skill of Navarez who took a competitive but clear decision victory.

