Rader, Lopez star at Brawlin in Nawlins

Written by Ken Trahan Friday, 08 May 2009 22:14

Other Local Sports

KENNER - The contrast was stark. Metairie's Charlie Rader had a "Jesus" tattoo across his stomach. New Mexico's Brad Nordquist had duplicate skull and crossbones tats on the cheeks of his face. By the end of the fight, one of those cheeks was swollen and beaten.

In the proverbial good versus evil battle, good prevailed as Rader stopped Nordquist in the MMA main event of the "Brawlin In N'Awlins" card at the Pontchartrain Center in Kenner. Just 31 seconds into the bout, Rader got leverage and drove Nordquist to the canvas with a huge takedown. For the next several minutes, Rader picked his spots and hammered Nordquist, finally getting him into a defenseless position. The fight was stopped 4:06 into the first round with Rader scoring a decisive victory before a partisan, pleased crowd of nearly 2,000 fans.



With the victory, Rader improved to 8-2 overall while Nordquist fell to 9-9. For Rader, he was thrilled to perform so well at home. "It felt good to be in my hometown again and have the fans behind me. It felt real good. Having the fans behind me gave me a lot of energy. He (Nordquist) was a tough guy. There were a couple of times he was a little scrappier than I thought he would be. I wanted to stand and fight with him but the way he came out kicking me, he left himself wide open for the takedown," said Rader.

Rader has been training at the Gracie Barra fight school on the Southshore, which is run by Kenny Saavedra. "It's the best school around, the best place to train. It has prepared me quite well," said Rader.

As for the good versus evil theme, Rader had the skull and crossbones as his sights from the very start. "Ultimately, I didn't get to hit him in those crossbones much but I hit him enough to make one of them stand out. I tried to help him out and save him a few medical bills," said Rader.

With the victory, Rader moves on to step up in class and in weight. He will next fight on June 13 at the Hurricane Harley Davidson location on the West Bank against Jeremiah Sanders in a 185 pound World Sanctioned title bout.

In the boxing main event, Light Heavyweight Alfonso Lopez of Cut And Shoot, Texas was simply brilliant. He scored a unanimous ten-round decision over a game but out-gunned Ronald Weaver of New Orleans.

The 35-year old Weaver, who was fighting for the first time since 2005, showed tremendous courage against the younger, bigger, faster and busier Lopez but youth was served. Weaver, who was trained by former New Orleans welterweight great Percy Pugh.

Lopez displayed very fast hands, has excellent reach, superb balance and looked as though he could have easily gone 15 rounds. He hit Weaver with many combinations throughout.

The sixth-round featured a tremendous exchange and was easily the best round of the fight. Weaver was nearly out on his feet but came back to rally with many big shots later in the round. From that point on, Lopez reasserted his dominance to control the fight.

This was a case of the Tiger being too powerful for the Cobra, Lopez, otherwise known as "El Tigre," is trained by Henry Harris, who once fought Floyd Patterson for the world light heavyweight championship. Now 14-0, with 11 knockouts, Lopez may have the skill necessary to ascend to prominence on the world stage. He was easily the most impressive fighter on this night. The judges scored it 100-89, 99-91 and 98-92 for Lopez.



In a pair of interesting prelims, New Orleanian Marcus McDaniel displayed an excellent left jab, good hand speed and the ability to avoid a punch in an impressive unanimous decision over Tommy Manning of Baton Rouge in the professional debut of both fighters at the middleweight level.

McDaniel knocked Manning's mouthpiece out on three different occasions and won 40-36 on all three scorecards.

Welterweight Ricky Kinney of Baton Rouge was too big and too powerful for Gulfport's Bobby Hill. Kinney, who enjoyed a three-inch height advantage and had seven pounds on Hill, out-quicked him from distance and out-punched him inside.

In fact, Kinney knocked Hill down three times in the third round, all with solid body punches. The referee stopped the fight after the third knockdown, 2:24 into the third round. With the win, Kinney improved to 4-1 with three knockouts while Hill dropped to 1-2 with the loss.

A crowd estimated at nearly 2,000 fans were on hand and were enthusiastic throughout. With the excellent fights and the acceptable turnout, there is a good chance that veteran promoter Les Bonano will return to Kenner again in the near future, a positive for Kenner and the entire New Orleans region. Combining boxing with MMA was a smart move, attracting fans of both disciplines.