By Sean Reed

Summer in Texas is no joke, and neither is the homegrown talent residing in the Lone Star State.  With night time temperatures occasionally hovering close to 100 degrees, it’s risky putting on an outdoor fight card.  Nonetheless, the ambition of Blue Chip Promotions, in association with Montoya Boxing Gym, paid off Saturday evening, July 28th.  Held at the Main Street Garden Park, in front of the historic Statler hotel, in downtown Dallas, “The Rumble in the Park” left no one disappointed.  In fact, talks of a sequel were in motion and all but promised prior to the main event, which featured homegrown prospect, Ray Ximenez. 

“America’s Team” the Dallas Cowboys are in training camp, prepping for the upcoming season, but a few of their retired legends and former players were in attendance to watch hands thrown in lieu of pigskin; Darren Woodson, Jim Jeffcoat, Flozell Adams, Michael Downs and Lincoln Coleman, to name a few.  ESPN Radio personality, Mark Elfenbein capably handled ring announcing duties.

Few cities have produced the number of world class combatants “Big D” has in the last decade or so, most notably 2012 United States Olympian and IBF welterweight champion, Errol Spence, Jr. and WBO super lightweight champion, Maurice Hooker.   There’s also Vergil Ortiz, Jr., 2008 U.S. Olympian, Luis Yanez, Charles Hatley and Roberto Marroquin.  Ray Ximenez (18-1, 4 KO’s) is very much in that class, of that same caliber, and at just 25, is one of the younger names of that grouping.  His bout with Mexico’s German Meraz (61-49-2, 38 KO’s) was further evidence in this regard. 

From the outset, Ximenez stalked Meraz, firing southpaw hooks to the head and lefts to the body.  The discrepancy in hand speed and athleticism was glaring and Ximenez battered Meraz with flurries against the ropes. ; In response, Meraz motioned Ximenez to keep it coming and banged his gloves together with much more ferocity than he dared to hurl them in Ximenez’s direction with.  In the 3rd, Ray landed a looping right hand, a hard left-hook to the body and began switching from southpaw to orthodox, to create openings on his cautious, defensive minded foe. 

Ximenez wobbled Meraz in the 4th, with a chopping left hook from orthodox position and drilled him with several southpaw rights in the 5th.  To say the least, Ximenez got some mileage out of his power hand, from both stances.  But as was the case earlier, Meraz’s weapon of choice was taunts and shit talk, exclusively.  He all but refused to open-up and fire back and it’s not easy stopping a man looking to survive; especially a veteran of 112 bouts. After 8 one-sided rounds, the verdict was academic and the decision unanimous, with all three judges scoring the affair 80-72 for Ximenez.

In other action, Kenneth Taylor (5-1-2, 4 KO’s) stopped Ndira Spearman (1-3) in the 4th round, via a series of left hooks to the body.  Spearman tasted the canvas 3 times, all courtesy of lefts downstairs, before the ref mercifully ended matters.  Jesse Angel Hernandez (12-1, 7 KO’s) defeated Raymond Chacon (7-33-1) by unanimous 4-round decision, and Darryl Hayes (6-11.1 KO) did likewise vs Stephon McIntyre (3-44-4, 1 KO).