BOXING AT THE IRVINE MARRIOTT : Armijo, Flores Fight to Draw; Both Suspended

IRVINE —  Promoter Ted Luckow’s last boxing card at the Irvine Marriott also might have been Huntington Beach welterweight John Armijo’s last fight.

Armijo, nicknamed “The Fighting Lifeguard,” survived a rocky start to earn a 10-round draw with Gilberto Flores of Mexico City Thursday night in front of 1,072. But afterward, ringside doctors Michael DeLuca and Robert Karns announced that both fighters will be suspended until they are cleared to box by neurological exams.

“They both took a lot of head blows,” said Karns, who said the suspensions would probably be at least 45 days.

Armijo (18-7-2), who has fought five times since taking a year off, said he will continue to fight and wasn’t pleased with the suspension.

“No way,” he said. “That’s the name of the game. I don’t see the point.”

But his trainer Jesse Reid wasn’t convinced Armijo should continue his career.

“This was a tough one,” Reid said. “Maybe (Armijo will continue), maybe not.”

Armijo appeared ready to go down in the third round when Flores nailed him with a solid right to the head, then followed with a flurry of blows for about two minutes.

But Flores (23-15) ran out of steam and took the next six rounds off while Armijo landed most of the serious blows. Armijo was penalized a point by referee Marty Denkin in the ninth round for delivering a low blow, and he was outworked in the 10th round.

Judge Gwen Adair scored it 95-94 Flores, Burt Gilliam had it 95-94 Armijo and Bill Scott called it 95-95.

Kid Dynamo (6-2-3) of the Westminster Boxing Club, started fast but tired and wound up fighting Frankie Hanks (3-2) of San Diego to a six-round draw. In a five-rounder, John John Palaki from Tonga improved his record to 12-0 with an impressive unanimous decision victory over Cecil Thompson (4-3) of Washington, D.C.

Luckow, who had the promotion rights at the Marriott for two years, announced Thursday that he sold the show to Roy Englebrecht, who had been helping Luckow promote for the past year.