Lara Scores a ‘Big’ Win Over Olivas

When the “big” guy is about 5-5 and weighs 116 pounds, you know you are either watching a bantamweight fight or you’ve stumbled into a junior high school dance.

There was no music Tuesday night at the Country Club in Reseda. Just bantamweights Manny Olivas and Javier Lara. And when their six-round bout was over, the shorter of the two fighters, 5-1 Lara of Panorama City, had earned a bloody split decision over the big guy, Olivas of North Hollywood.

The fight was a brawl from the start, with Olivas slashing away with stinging lefts and rights and Lara countering with crushing overhand rights that repeatedly rocked Olivas.

By the end of the bout, Lara, whose cuts were examined twice by the ring doctor, was bleeding heavily. When the decision was announced, Olivas, who had been hurt several times in the fight, merely seemed disappointed.

In a scheduled six-round super middleweight bout, Tony Chicoine of Orange knocked out Milton Bush of Westminster at 2:45 of the second round.

Chicoine, who sustained a gash over his right eye in the first round, knocked Bush down in the closing seconds of the opening round. Midway through the second round, Chicoine caught Bush with a hard right that sent him to the mat. Bush got up at the count of seven, but was still hurt. With 15 seconds remaining in the round, a wild uppercut by Chicoine caught Bush under the jaw and lifted him off his feet. When Bush came down, referee Lou Moret quickly signaled that the fight was over. Chicoine is 7-3.

In a brief ceremony before the fights, Frankie Duarte was awarded his North American Boxing Federation bantamweight championship belt. Duarte captured the title July 10 with a TKO victory over Jesus Salud at the Forum.

In one of the featured bouts, Randy Ortega pounded out a six-round unanimous decision over Genaro Espitia in a bantamweight fight. Ortega improved to 9-1 while Espitia fell to 6-2.

In a four-round junior middleweight bout, 32-year-old Milford Kemp of North Hollywood, fighting in just his third professional bout, lost a split decision to Willie Wilson of San Diego. Kemp is 2-1.

In other preliminaries, Richard DeMarco (2-0) scored a unanimous four-round decision over Joe Motten of San Diego and Russell Mosely (2-0) scored a four-round unanimous decision over Robert Lewis.

Also, Javier Macias of Pacoima (2-1) scored a unanimous decision over Victor Alvarado.