Avila wins Cache Creek bout with TKO

M att MilleR MMILLER@DAILYREPUBLIC.NET

FAIRFIELD — Manuel

“Tino” Avila’s professional boxing return was a success again Friday night as he earned a technical knockout of Sacramento’s Alberto Torres in the seventh of eight scheduled rounds in their featherweight bout at the Cache Creek Casino Resort in Brooks.

The Fairfield fighter upped his record to

25-2-1 with nine knockouts. Avila retired from boxing in 2019 but is now 2-0 in 2023. He defeated Antonio Tostado Garcia of Jamay, Jalisco, Mexico, in Tijuana on Feb. 17 with a unanimous decision in eight rounds.

“I still have some ring rust on me, but I did feel better than I did in February,” Avila said by telephone Saturday afternoon. “I have a few scratches but that’s about it. People thought I was a little hesitant to stop him because I know him, but I was looking for the knockout. Maybe if it had been someone else I would have gone for the kill faster.”

Torres had been a training partner of Avila in the past and the two have known each other throughout their professional careers. They’ve even shared ideas and techniques.

“I tried to stay outside and box him but he is a left-hander,” Avila said.

“My game plan went out the window and I improvised as much as I could.”

Avila put Torres on the canvas in the first and second rounds, he said, and was going hard at him in the third. Avila said that by the fifth and sixth rounds Torres wasn’t throwing many punches back. Doctors stopped the fight in the seventh because Torres at that point had been taking too much punishment.

Sampson Boxing and