Crafty Quiles Exceeds His Reach in Posting Victory Over Mendez

RESEDA — Ricky Quiles had to reach for victory against long-armed Francisco Mendez on Thursday night at the Reseda Country Club.

Quiles gave up four inches in height to the 6-foot Mendez, not to mention several inches in reach. But it was Quiles who landed the more telling blows, and the vacant World Boxing Federation super-lightweight title with a 12-round majority decision before a sparse crowd.

Quiles, who improved to 28-2-1, boxed and weaved his way into the later rounds, when he appeared to get stronger. In the 11th, Quiles landed a short left that dropped Mendez, who protested he had slipped to referee Chuck Hassett during a standing eight count.

Two judges favored Quiles, 118-108. A third scored the fight, 113-113.

“It was a very close fight,” said Quiles, a native of Ohio. “He gave me problems, being a southpaw. But I’m a southpaw, too.

“With his reach, he was tough to figure out. I just kept swinging away, trying to stick him.”

For Quiles, who entered the ring wearing red, white and blue trunks with a matching mask, the fight was only his second of 1998 and sixth in the last four years.

Mendez dropped to 12-14.

The six-bout card was shortened to four fights because of late withdrawls by fighters. A scheduled 10-round light-heavyweight bout between Chris Johnson and Reggie Miller was canceled, and a four-round lightweight bout between Jamal Harris and Heriberto Ramos also was scratched.

Crowd favorite Victor Ortiz of Simi Valley improved to 5-0 with a fourth-round knockout of Joaquin Felix in a scheduled six-round cruiserweight bout.

Ortiz, who has three knockouts, went toe-to-toe with Felix, 19-16, exchanging short, powerful blows from the beginning.

Ortiz landed a flurry of compact blows that dropped Felix in his own corner at 1:49 of the fourth round.

“This guy was a pretty tough fight,” Ortiz said. “He caught my attention a couple of times with a couple of overhands. But I’ve worked too hard for this. Every time I hit him, I could see I was taking something out of him.”

In other fights, Juan Lazcano, who won the WBF lightweight title at the Country Club in 1997, recorded a fourth-round technical knockout over overmatched Olegario DeLeon in a scheduled six-round super-lightweight bout.

Lazcano, 15-2-1 with 10 knockouts, was in command from the start, measuring and tagging DeLeon almost at will with swift combinations before landing a flurry that dropped DeLeon in his own corner at 1:49 of the round. DeLeon’s record dropped to 6-22-2.