The card was stacked with some of today’s hottest young prospects, but the bout that caught my eye was the main event between Juan de Dios “El Pollo” Valenzuela vs. Danny Zee. “El Pollo” Valenzuela was making his return to the ring after 3-years of inactivity due to a serious eye injury.

Early in the fight Valenzuela started to apply pressure on Zee using combination and body punching. Zee responded well and was effective with a couple of left hooks of his own. But things didn’t look so good for Valenzuela when in the second a clash of heads caused a small gash over Valenzuela’s right eye. Gary Herman, a reporter for another website, incorrectly stated that the cut came from a punch. But a closer look at this exclusive FightBeat Video proves otherwise

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Of course, a cut wasn’t going to stop these two warriors from mixing it up. There were some heated exchanges with both men not giving ground. Although Zee continued to attack Valenzuela, it was Valenzuela that was connecting with more punches. Zee had his moments when he landed a few brutal uppercuts and body shots on Valenzuela.

Later in the fight Valenzuela changed tactics and opted for lateral movement, combinations, and just pure boxing. But Zee’s bomb’s kept raining in, stunning Valenzuela on several occasions. Zee was most effective when he had Valenzuela against the ropes so he could land his big  bombs. But even when Zee would land shots hard enough to decapitated Valenzuela, “El Pollo” never gave up and always fired back.

The three judges scored it 79-74 Valenzuela, 77-75 Zee and 76-76 resulting in a draw. Valenzuela’s record moves to 20-6-1 (9KO’s) while Zee moves to 8-12-1 (4KO’s).

After the fight FightBeat caught up with Juan Valenzuela who was in good spirits and gave us his thoughts on the fight. “I started really good in the first rounds, but later in the fight I started feeling very tired. Zee is very strong,” said Valenzuela.

Part of the problem for Valenzuela was that this fight was 5-lbs above the agreed weight.

"This is the first time that I’ve fought at 150 lbs I usually fight between 142 to 145 lbs.  This fight was suppose to be at 145, but Zee was 5-pounds heavier. I accepted it because I really want it to fight. Boy did I learn my lesson. This is the last time I do that. “

As far as the results of the fight, he was somewhat in agreement with the judges. “I think I won the fight, and i bet Zee is saying the same thing  a draw is fair for both of us.”

Undercard Action

In the Co-Main Event Armenian Prospect Vardan Gasparyan won a unanimous decision over Steve Verdin. Gasparyan improves his record to 9-1 (4KO) and Verdin drops to 8-34 (1KO)

In a rematch, Israel Navarrete managed to defeat Jorge Diaz for a second time by pulling out a unanimous decision.

The fireworks started from the opening bell. Diaz and Navarrete stood in the middle of the ring and traded punches for the entire 3-minutes of the round, The fans were on the edge of their seats cheering on the gladiators. Diaz scored the only knock down of the night with a left cross that deposited Navarrete to the canvas.

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Amazingly Navarrete got up and went after him with very accurate combinations trying to win the round. At the end of the round everyone in attendance got up from their chairs and applauded the amazing effort of both fighters.

In the later rounds Navarrete was more aggressive and accurate with his punches, which is what probably won him the fight. The judges had this win for Navarrete 57-56,59-55,59-55. Navarrete improves to 5-4-0 and Diaz drops 4-5-1

In the very first fight of the night, Evgeny Hill defeated Miguel Reza by a majority decision that could have gone either way.

“I’m very pleased with the turnout and the fans got to see a great night of fights,” said promoter and former NABO champion Kahren Harutyunyan. “This was a great experience for me as a promoter. We’ll continue to improve on what went well and learn from any mistakes we made. But I’m certainly looking forward to coming back to the Warner Center and putting on some more great fights for the fans.” Unfortunately for fans, Art Hovannisyan did not fight that evening. His scheduled opponent inexplicably pulled out of the fight at the last minute, leaving Hovannisyan and his fans very disappointed. However, he's expected to fight on their next promotion.