Canela Wins Title When Long Throws in Towel

They threw in the towel on Alfonso Long in the main event of a boxing card at the Irvine Marriott Tuesday night. In this case, he certainly didn’t mind--he agreed.

Long’s handlers threw their towels into the ring after Long complained of not being able to see. Felipe Canela was awarded the technical knockout at 2:05 of the eighth round of the scheduled 12-round bout.

Canela had opened a cut over Long’s left eye, and the blood prevented Long from seeing Canela’s quick jabs, which had tagged him throughout the evening.

With the victory, Canela wins the vacant state welterweight title. He will use it as a stepping stone to challenge state super welterweight Tomas Perez.

Long entered the match with a respectable record of 17-4, but his nickname of “Bumble Bee” seems to have come from his penchant for dancing around the ring and not from the sting of his punches. Long moved better than Canela, but Canela boxed better and won the fight because of it.

Canela, of Colton, improved his record to 21-4-3.

On the undercard, Lee Sentinella of Westminster won a split decision over Ruben Blackwell of Los Angeles at 162 pounds, and Dave Yonko of Long Beach won a unanimous decision over Dennis Reddick of Inglewood at heavyweight.