Local fighter headlines Ormsby House card

The Carson City Boxing Club hosts an invitational amateur boxing card Saturday at the Ormsby House and CCBC fighter Mike Peralta is featured in the main event, fighting Jose Navarro of Modesto, Calif.

"We're looking at having 15 fights on the card, maybe more if everyone shows up," said CCBC head coach Chuck Williams. "We hope to match seven or eight of our fighters for the card, but we won't know for sure until all the fighters make it in."

The invitational card features fighters coming in from Modesto and Stockton as well as from Reno, Fernley, Nixon, Wadsworth, and possibly from the Silver & Gold boxing club in Virginia City and Medford, Ore.

"It will be one of the better cards if everything goes as planned," added Williams. "The semi-main has Reno's Theron DeLorme fighting Stockton's Tony Avila. All the proceeds from the card go to benefit the CCBC equipment fund."

The non-profit event begins at 6 p.m. Tickets are priced at $7 for general admission. Under -12 children are admitted free. Tickets are currently available at the Ormsby House or at the door fight night.

- One week later on Oct. 23 at the Boys & Girls Club (2680 E. Ninth Street, Reno), the Reno Jets will host the Ray Tavares Memorial Invitational amateur card that will honor longtime Reno Jets boxing coach Ray Tavares, who passed away last month.

"We'll have some ceremonies and the traditional 10-count will be rung for Ray before the card starts," said Thelma Tavares, Ray's widow and an amateur boxing official in Northern Nevada. "We've got 22 bouts now, but we'll probably lose a fight or two before the card is finalized."

The non-profit Reno card will feature CCBC and Medford fighters going against the Reno Jets team. Tickets are priced at $6 for general admission, with those 15 and under admitted for $3. There is no pre-sale of tickets. They are available at the door fight night. First bell in Reno is set for 6 p.m.

- It has been announced that former Carson City resident an favorite Kenny Keene - he was handled by Carson City's Ted Walker before Walker passed away last year - will fight his last fight of his career on Nov. 12 in Boise, Idaho.

The former cruiserweight champ Keene, now fighting as a heavyweight, says "this is it" regarding his career and he wants to go out in front of his homestate fans. Keene, 31, is from Emmett, Idaho.

Keene, 46-3, 26 KO's, wants his 50th fight to be a winning, last fight. He takes on a tough cookie in Rob Calloway, who is 33-1, 23 KO's. There is no TV for the fight.

- I'm sure you know by now that Muhammad Ali's daughter, Laila, won her first fight ever (amateur or pro) Friday night in Verona, N.Y.

The 21-year old daughter of the living legend Ali had no problem with April Fowler, knocking her out just 31 seconds into their scheduled 4-round fight.

To put it in perspective, Laila was fed a stiff. Fowler, who was knocked out in her only other fight some 18 months ago, wasn't supposed to be competitive - and she wasn't. She was there to be knocked out and she obliged willingly.

That's the problem with women's boxing. There are many mismatches and few competitive fights because the pool of women boxers to draw from is so small. Only a handful of female fighters are top-level. The rest are either inept or just learning and can't fight much.

So, don't expect Ali to fight anyone competitive for at least a year while they build up her record to 10-0 or 15-0 and then maybe there will be some tough fights for her out there.

By the way, her dad was at ringside for his daughter's pro debut.

- Also on Friday night from the Roseland Ballroom in Taunton, Mass., ESPN2 showed their usual Friday night fight card and in the main event, James "Lights Out" Toney fought Ramon Garbey, one of the "Team Freedom" fighters that defected from Cuba a few years ago, in a cruiserweight fight.

Toney, who hasn't punched anyone's "lights out" in quite sometime, was too cute and cagey for Garbey and Toney's experience paid off as he outhustled Garbey to win a 10-round decision in their cruiserweight fight.

Toney improved his record to 58-4-2 with 37 KO's. Garbey is now 14-2 with 11 KO's.

- Saturday night in Seattle, the first-ever man vs. woman fight occurred and it was a farce! Not only did the fight stink, it wasn't competitive and did nothing for boxing.

For the record, Margaret McGregor won a four-round decision over Loi Chow in a forgettable fight.

I must admit, they did sell lots of tickets for the card. It was a sellout with a reported 2,600-plus fans in attendance, but let's hope this doesn't continue. Not only did the sport of boxing lose something because of this latest gimmick to sell tickets, it dropped a notch closer to pro wrestling and roller derby. Let's hope Nevada never allows anything like this to happen in our state!

- I'll close by informing you that the Nevada State Athletic Commission has suspended Julio Cesar Chavez until Dec. 2 after his poor performance against Willy Wise earlier this month.

That's a long suspension for a fighter who wasn't knocked down or out in a fight and shows you that the Nevada officials think Chavez is through and could possibly get hurt if he fights anybody decent.

I bet that won't stop Chavez promoter Don King from trying to match Chavez for some sort of title fight after the suspension is lifted. Only in America can this crap go on, but in this case, don't be surprised if King takes Chavez back to his home country of Mexico for his next fight.

Chavez can still sell tickets and that seems to be the name of the game these days ....

ALAN ROGERS is the Nevada Appeal boxing writer.