MERCED \u2014 Christian Palacio made his professional boxing debut on Sept. 12 in the only way he knew how to \u2014 in style.<\/p>\n
The 25-year-old Turlock native made his ring walk inside a jam-packed Yosemite Hall at the Merced County Fairgrounds donning a shining pink robe and flanked by his trainer, Andres Anthony Mariscal, and a massive robot mascot.<\/p>\n
Rather than being overcome with nerves as he prepared to make the biggest leap in his career, Palacio simply smiled. It turned out he had good reason to carry himself with such confidence, as he proceeded to make quick work of his opponent.<\/p>\n
Facing off against Andres Ponce of Scottsdale, Ariz. in a 154-pound super welterweight contest scheduled for four rounds, Palacio crumbled his opponent midway through the third with a left hook to the body for the technical knockout.<\/p>\n
\u201cOh, man, it was such a high,\u201d Palacio told the\u00a0Journal. \u201cI just felt like I was on top of the world.\u201d<\/p>\n
Palacio had his way throughout the bout, evading the aggressive Ponce and counterpunching to the head, creating an opening to land the fateful body shot.<\/p>\n
\u201cI just kept hitting him to the head, and then I went for that uppercut,\u201d Palacio explained. \u201cAs soon as I saw him put his hand up, boom, I hit him right there to the body.\u201d<\/p>\n
It was just the second shot to the body that Palacio attempted.<\/p>\n
Palacio and Mariscal entered the night expecting Ponce (0-4) to be aggressive due to his background in mixed martial arts.<\/p>\n
\u201cEvery single punch he threw were like knockout punches, turning his whole body with each punch, not trying to set up punches or anything,\u201d Palacio said. \u201cI didn’t want to take any of those punches, and I was really proud of myself that I came out of the fight with just a little bruise on my eye. I was thinking more defensively because there were a couple shots early on that he hit me with on top of my forehead, and I felt it without my head gear for the first time. I didn\u2019t want to get hit again like that.\u201d<\/p>\n
As an amateur wearing head gear, Palacio achieved a 16-6 record, with his most recent hardware coming last year with a top finish at the \u200b\u200bCentral Valley Gold Gloves Tournament.<\/p>\n
Last Saturday\u2019s bout was also Palacio\u2019s first without his father, the late Adrian Palacio, in his corner. Adrian Palacio was the head trainer, owner and founder of Palacio Truth Boxing in West Turlock, and passed away on Jan. 24.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe put all his life into The Truth Boxing, and he put all his life into me,\u201d Palacio said of his father. \u201cI wouldn’t be here without him, and I hope I made him proud.\u201d<\/p>\n
Responded the ring announcer: \u201cThat body shot, it must have come from him.\u201d<\/p>\n
Again, Palacio could do little but sport a bright smile big enough to illuminate the entire event center. A celebration alongside dozens of family and friends ensued at the family gym.<\/p>\n
\u201cTo have all those people come out to support me is amazing,\u201d Palacio said. \u201cIt\u2019s such a good feeling. I really want to fight again soon because I really want that feeling again.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"MERCED \u2014 Christian Palacio made his professional boxing debut on Sept. 12 in the only way he knew…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":172562,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[447],"tags":[703,49,48,82],"class_list":["post-172561","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-boxing","tag-boxing","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/172561","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=172561"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/172561\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/172562"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=172561"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=172561"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=172561"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}