By Thomas Cathey | Special to The OBSERVER
Sacramento State’s Combat U put on the inaugural Causeway Boxing Classic at Memorial Auditorium Nov. 22, with student boxers from Sacramento State taking on their UC Davis counterparts.
Earlier this year, former UFC fighter Urijah Faber’s Ultimate Fitness collaborated with Sac State and President Dr. Luke Wood to bring combat sports to the university. Sac State formed a boxing team led by former super middleweight/light heavyweight Brandon Gonzales.
It had been more than 50 years since Sac State fielded a boxing team, which back in the day slugged it out at Memorial Auditorium, home to many professional championship bouts. Spectators and students from both schools battled a downpour Friday to watch a 14-bout card, topped by two matchups pitting Sac State against UCD.
The Hornets and Aggies split those matches, but Sac State earned more victories as a team, with five and was awarded the Causeway Classic trophy this year.
In the night’s third fight, Sac State heavyweight Austin Melendez won a three-round slugfest over Air Force Academy’s Justin Bonilla. Melendez had trusted his training and preparation going into the fight and believed that carried him to victory.
“A lot of prep went into it. The week before the fight was our ‘push’ week, so we pushed as hard as we could to make our cardio the best it can be,” Melendez told The OBSERVER while applying ice to his face and recovering after his hard-fought victory. “Once you finally step in the ring, it shows the work you’ve been putting in. So I was able to last all three rounds at a pretty good pace.”
Sac State was welterweight Ayahna Gonzales, daughter of Coach Brandon Gonzales. She entered the ring to a rousing reception led by her mom Janelle, who co-founded Flawless Boxing Gym in Sacramento, where the Sac State team trains. There wasn’t much for mom to worry about, as Gonzales scored a standing eight-count on the way to victory.
“It wasn’t my best performance,” she said afterwards. “Yes, I won, but I feel like there’s more I could’ve done out there. I feel like every fighter feels that way when they come out of the ring. I did pretty solid but there’s definitely some things I want to work on again when I go back into the gym.”
After eight preliminary bouts, the first official Causeway Classic matchup featured welterweights Conner Suen of UCD against Allen Miranda of Sac State. Miranda won the three-rounder by decision and was proud to have the opportunity to showcase his skills in front of family, friends and colleagues.
“They’ve all been supporting me from the beginning,” Miranda said. “It just feels good to be able to do them justice. … It’s been a long process, over two years for me to get to this point.”
In the other rivalry matchup, UCD heavyweight Alejandro Silva outpointed Corey Blackmon.