Four fighters from Main Street Kickboxing hold amateur status,
but bring plenty of experience to the octagon
HOLLISTER
Following Justin Bronson’s technical knockout of Fabian Lopez on July 24 at Salinas’ Palma High School, Danny Kelly couldn’t help but think of the correlation between his gym and its fighters.
Kelly, the head trainer at Hollister’s Main Street Kickboxing, is celebrating his fourth year in business at its Hillcrest Road location, and on July 24 in Salinas, his four fighters went 4-0 in the Central Coast Throwdown II at a soldout Palma gymnasium.
“That was something,” Kelly said last weekend, noting three of his fighters won their respective matches with first-round stoppages. “I told the promoter to find the best guys out there so we can see where they’re at, and he did.
“They’re getting wins and they’re winning impressively.”
On the night, Junior Aviles defeated Alameda’s Javier Ochoa by unanimous decision, Fernando Lopez topped Justin Rios of Monterey by knockout, and Cris Barber knocked out Nikko Jackson of East Palo Alto in the first round, while Bronson’s TKO of Soledad’s Lopez sealed the four-win night for the Hollister gym.
Although each of Kelly’s four fighters holds amateur status, each has plenty of experience at some level of grappling — even the 25-year-old Bronson, who was making his Mixed Martial Arts debut.
“He’s something,” Kelly said. “He’s very new to the game.”
Bronson might be new to the MMA game, but he isn’t completely green, not to the physical nature of the sport, nor the spotlight.
The 6-foot-2 light heavyweight was a Division I wrestler at the University of Minnesota, where he was an NCAA national qualifier and helped lead the Golden Gophers to a national title during his junior year.
“I wrestled there for five years … one of the top programs in the nation for wrestling,” Bronson said. “That’s kind of where my background lies — a wrestling background.”
The former collegiate grappler made sure his years of experience on the mat paid off in the octagon on July 24. Soft-spoken, Bronson said he remained calm during his bout with Lopez, a Combat Sambo fighter out of the Soledad Mixed Martial Arts studio.
“I’ve competed for years and years and years at different competitions and different high-level things,” Bronson said. “I’ve competed in a lot of situations and that gives you a different mindset …”
Bronson said he helps teach wrestling at Main Street, a sport which he said provides a strong foundation toward learning MMA.
“It’s a good place to start out of,” Bronson added. “It’s a real solid base to learn from because we work with a lot of technical stuff, so just learning the process of how to move your body and how to control yourself is a big help.”
Aviles, too, was making his debut at the MMA ranks last month alongside Bronson, although he entered with some additional ring experience as well.
Also a wrestler during his prep career, Aviles, now 23, is 1-0 in the California Amateur Mixed Martial Arts Organization (CAMO), but 4-0 in Muay Thai boxing — his true passion.
“It’s something different,” Aviles said of Muay Thai, which is similar to kickboxing and fought mostly standing up, unlike MMA. “I wrestled through high school and it’s a different pace, a different change.”
Aviles’ background in Muay Thai didn’t have a negative influence during his first MMA bout against Javier Ochoa — a unanimous-decision victory. Aviles said he was pinned against the cage as Ochoa was delivering several knee blows, but managed to punch his way back toward the center of the octagon before dropping the Alameda fighter to the canvas.
Aviles positioned himself on top of Ochoa in the second round as well after throwing him to the octagon floor.
“Ground and pound,” said Aviles, noting how his wrestling background helps more in MMA than in Muay Thai. The Hollister welterweight is vying for a state title in the latter sport, though.
“I’m coming close to a state title, so I’m kind of leaning towards that,” Aviles said.
Cris Barber and Fernando Lopez are two of Main Street’s more experienced fighters, and each proved as much during the Central Coast Throwdown: Both Barber and Lopez defeated their respective opponents in less than a minute.
“Right when the ref said go, I touched gloves, took a step back, and then jumped for him with at least six punches,” said Barber, 19, of his fight with Nikko Jackson. The bout was over in 43 seconds, Barber said.
Before he was able to make quick work of the opposition, though, the Hollister middleweight tried to land a “wild hook,” but was instead taken down by Jackson. Barber quickly flipped the East Palo Alto fighter onto his back, however, and landed several, quick blows until the referee intervened.
He is now 3-0 in CAMO, 4-0 overall.
“It wasn’t a straight punch,” Barber said of his hook. “He was able to see it and take me down before it landed.”
It was a somewhat similar situation for Lopez, who knocked out Justin Rios in the first round as well.
But it was Rios who caught Lopez with a punch and took the lightweight down in the opening seconds, and later landed a “good hook” from a standing position on the 19-year-old fighter.
“That woke me up,” said Lopez, who resides in Concord but is training in Hollister to become a firefighter. Known in the octagon as “Fury,” Lopez turned the tide of the bout when he delivered several knee-kicks to Rios as well as a strong jab and hook sequence that dropped the Monterey fighter to the canvas.
Although he is just 2-0 in CAMO, Lopez said he remained calm while fighting from his back — four years of experience in wrestling and grappling tournaments perhaps helped.
“I was never worried,” said Lopez, who improves to 3-0. “I always trust my coaches and myself.
“I really wanted this bad.”
