Biology sophomore Kevin “The Killa” Abanilla triumphed over Marco “The Gecko” Reyes at Friday Night Fights Sept. 16.

The judges handed a unanimous decision, raising Abanilla to an undefeated record of 2-0.

Abanilla was initially scheduled for a rematch with his rival, Jeff Corban, but was assigned a different fighter at the last moment.

“The line-up of the fights kept changing, and I wasn’t sure when I was going to fight. Then my opponent got switched, and I found out at the last minute that I was fighting a big southpaw. So that got me pretty nervous,” Abanilla said.

His new opponent was Marco “The Gecko” Reyes, a boxer from Honduras, making his debut.

The first round was dominated by Abanilla’s quick jabs to the head. Reyes, with his hands low, was unfazed by the punches and kept charging forward, looking to land a right hook. Abanilla dodged his opponent’s telegraphed punches and countered with a left cross and right hook combination.

“I realized he was not as fast as me and that his technique was pretty bad. I started using my feints, and that opened him up to a lot of shots,” Abanilla said.

The second round started with both fighters jabbing. Reyes landed a hard right that surprised Abanilla but failed to follow it up with any more punches. Abanilla responded with a double left cross that rocked Reyes and made him back up. Abanilla started to pick him apart with diverse punching combinations to the head and body. Both boxers were clearly exhausted when the second round ended.

“He caught me at the start of the second round with a good, stiff, right hand and that knocked my contact lens out. After that, I tensed up a lot and I started to get tired. I also couldn’t see his right hand at all after that, which happened to be his jabbing hand,” Abanilla said.

In the final round, Abanilla took his opponent’s jabs before countering with a left cross, which snapped Reyes’s head back. Reyes tossed patience out the window and began to brawl with Abanilla. Abanilla defended himself and kept countering with his left cross and right hook combinations. Abanilla finally stopped the flurry of hooks with his own right hook to Reyes’ body.

“Third round, my feet were hurting and I wasn’t as mobile as I wanted to be. I started to load up on straight lefts and right hooks since I couldn’t see anything coming on my left side. I was also getting pretty gassed because the missing contact was making me nervous and tense up,” Abanilla said.

Reyes said he was disappointed with the result of the fight but he still congratulated Abanilla on his performance.

“I thought I was ready for this fight. I took it like a man though. I still feel good because I didn’t get knocked out,” Reyes said.

Abanilla said he had mixed feelings on his own performance.

“I felt pretty good afterwards because I wasn’t hurt or anything. I was just disappointed that I couldn’t do better because I was missing my contact,” Abanilla said.

Michael Sanchez can be reached at [email protected]