Rosas stops
tiring Villaver in
fifth round

Weakened by the flu,
the Kalihi welterweight can't stay
with the Mexican veteran

By Mike Fitzgerald
Star-Bulletin

Just because boxing was held at a cannery doesn't mean that the card was filled with tomato cans.

Five spirited professional bouts fired up a capacity crowd of 900 fans at the Dole Cannery Ballroom last night.

The main event turned into an early Cinco de Mayo celebration, however, as Rosemberg Rosas of Mexico scored a TKO victory over Hawaii's Erwin Villaver in the fifth round of a scheduled 10-round welterweight fight.

Rosas stayed close, often shoving Villaver into the corners, in a battle of left-handers. Then he exploded with a flurry of combinations as Villaver suddenly dropped his hands and absorbed several blows to the head.

Referee Abraham Pacheco had no choice but to stop the fight at 2:59 of the round.

"At the beginning I felt like he was a strong fighter," Rosas said through an interpreter. "So I just tried to tie him up and then step back."

Villaver said he was weak from the flu and wasn't able to train properly in the last several days.

"My body couldn't move," he said of the strange fifth round. "I couldn't punch, so I put my hands down. I tried to take him out early, but he was tough. And then I started to feel real weak."

Villaver, of Kalihi, fell to 13-8-1 while the veteran Rosas improved to 16-15-2.

In the semi-main event, Roberto Granciosa of Honolulu knocked out Mexico's Gabriel Jara Camacho in the fourth round of a scheduled five-round junior welterweight bout.

Granciosa (31-17-3)dropped Camacho (10-5) with a big body shot that sent him down for the count at 2:59 of the round.

"I tried to get his hands up and then went to the body," Granciosa said.

In one of the three undercard fights, a promising local fighter emerged in his professional debut. Jasen Villagonza of Waipahu -- the son of former pro fighter Jessie Villagonza -- pounded Ted Price in a first-round TKO.

The 18-year-old left-hander knocked Price down twice with impressive combinations before referee Milton Higa stopped it at 1:54.

"It feels good, especially with my family and friends here," said Villagonza, who had a boisterous cheering section on hand. "My dad really taught me a lot."

The scheduled four-round welterweight bout also was the pro debut for Price, who is from of Wahiawa.

In the first fight of the night, Tommy Chang (1-0), of Washington D.C., defeated David Chambers (2-3), of Cleveland, on a TKO at 2:02 of the third round.

In the second bout, Leokava Letu (3-0), of Waianae, knocked out Robert Jackson, of California, at 1:56 of the fourth and final round of their middleweight fight.