"Lionheart" Tony Hervey, with belt, celebrates with friends after defeating Victor "Joe Boxer" Valenzuela
By George Hernandez
(Highland) – San Manuel Casino had a packed house for King of the Cage: Superstars Thursday night. Former UFC Light Heavyweight Champion Tito Ortiz, KOTC Welterweight contender Rick Legere and MMA ref Big John McCarthy were all on hand to see “Lionheart” Tony Hervey back up his vow to beat Victor “Joe Boxer” Valenzuela.
Hervey, (11-5), came out against Valenzuela (9-4-2) with a furry of punches and kicks to start off the fight. Valenzuela withstood the furry and looked for his shots. Hervey threw some more punches, but Valenzuela landed a solid right hand.
Hervey went for another flurry of punches but got caught and Valenzuela responded with his own flurry but he poked Hervey in the eye in the process. The referee didn’t see it so Valenzuela tried to capitalize and finish the fight. Hervey took the punches and took Valenzuela down, before landing some hard ground and pound. An elbow opened a cut on the forehead of Valenzuela that had both fighters covered in blood.
Both fighters ended up back on their feet and the doctor checked the fight and said it was okay to continue. Hervey and Valenzuela finished off the round landing punches.
Hervey came out again in the second round looking to land hard kicks and punches, but Valenzuela landed a few of his own. Hervey’s first takedown attempt was stuffed by the great sprawl of Valenzuela, but Hervey never quit and pushed forward and finally got it.
Hervey landed some more hard punches the referee was forced to stop the fight to check Valenzuela’s cut. The doctor officially stopped the fight at 1:32 of the second round TKO cut to give Hervey the vacant King of the Cage Lightweight Championship. Despite the loss, Valenzuela is still the King of the Cage Junior Welterweight Champion.
In other bouts:
Lopez Sleepwalks over Cryer:
Tony Lopez (15-2) the King of the Cage Light Heavyweight and Heavyweight Champion, defended his light heavyweight title against Dave Cryer (8-2). Cryer right at the ring of the bell came out circling the cage Lopez was stalking him but neither fighter was throwing punches.
Every round seemed to repeat itself. Cryer would come out circling the cage and Lopez would stalk and land kicks at will. Cryer had a couple of unsuccessful takedown attempts during the bout and caught a couple kicks and landed hard shots. Neither fighter was ever rocked or in any danger. Lopez won the fight easily by unanimous decision and now has a 13 fight win streak while Cryer’s streak is ended at five.
Ulises Figueroa def. Mauro Brenes by 1st rd (sub)
Brian Abram def. Chris Culley by 2nd rd TKO (sub)
Ruben Duran def. Greg Guzman by (unanimous decision)
Neil Cooke def. Sal Farnetti by 1st rd (sub)
Charles Bennett def. Eric Moon 1st rd KO (strikes)
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