Eduardo Piñon barely had time to celebrate the second victory of his budding boxing career on Saturday before another challenge was thrown in his face.
Even before stepping out of the ring of his second round knockout Saturday of Khendal Moore during “Cold War 6” at the Ohkay Hotel Casino, Albuquerque’s Quentin DeLeon was up between the ropes and mad-dogging Piñon.
“I was not expecting that,” Piñon said. “He came up, he said he wanted to be my next opponent. I just told him that I was ready for him. I’m OK with whoever comes next.”
Piñon, out of Santa Fe, watched DeLeon’s last fight, a Christmas Day loss in Albuquerque, but he did not anticipate having a close encounter in the ring so soon.
“He went up there to call me out,” Piñon said. “I was surprised. I was not expecting him to do that. It was different.”
And Piñon (2-0) said he’s ready to take him on at any point.
“I work hard,” he said. “I’m ready for this guy if he wants to go in April. I feel confident and I’m going right back to the gym and working hard.”
As for the fight at hand, Piñon wasted little time in taking out Moore.
“I felt confident and it went really well,” he said. “I knocked him down in the first round and then I knocked him down twice in the second round. The second time, I hit him in the liver with a shot and he couldn’t recover in time.”
The advantages were all with him, Piñon said.
“I was taller than him and I knew I had an advantage with my distance so I was able to feel him out and see how he was moving,” he said. “I expected him to come out more aggressive than he did. I started poking him with the jab and it was working. He threw a couple of punches and I moved on them and I made him miss a couple of times and that allowed me to counter-punch.”
And it wasn’t long before Moore was completely at Piñon’s mercy.
“I was moving him around, I was dictating him around with my jab,” he said. “Putting him against the ropes multiple times. He liked to hug a lot, When he felt he was in danger, he would like to clinch up with me. That was a little frustrating. That got me bothered a little bit that he wouldn’t let me work when I wanted to.”
Still, Piñon emerged with nary a blemish and soaked in the reaction, for a moment, anyway.
“I had a big crowd cheering for me,” he said. “That gives you so much confidence knowing that so many people came and supported me. I just need to keep getting more fights, getting more rounds and keep getting more experience with fights. Then eventually getting some fights out of state.”
When it was pointed out that it’s hard to get rounds when he ends his fights in the second frame, Piñon laughed.
“It’s hard to not knock them out,” he said. “When you see your chance, you’ve got to take it.”
In the other fights on the six-bout card, Rolyn Nez of Bloomington, who is eying a WBC World Youth Super Welterweight title opportunity by the end of the year, knocked out Daniel Gonzalez of Santa Fe in the second round.
After 5½ years away from the ring, Santa Fe’s Aiseah Achesah successfully returned with a unanimous decision over Manuel Eastman.
Jorge Villaruel of Albuquerque took out Torrance Self of Los Lunas with a second round knockout. And Moriarty’s Xavier Maestas dropped Jose Vialpando in the second round. Finally, Shaquan Wagner beat Matt Wells.