Banke Is Winner in a Slugfest : Technical Knockout Ends Battle With Adames at Forum

Nine nights into 1989, Paul Banke and Ramiro Adames put a “Southern California fight of the year” candidate up on the board at the Forum Monday night.

The result, a sixth-round technical knockout by Banke that won the World Boxing Assn. Continental Americas super-bantamweight championship, put him in the world title fight picture. Banke, a longtime nationally ranked amateur flyweight from Azusa, raised his record to 17-3 with 10 knockouts in his toughest test yet in the pros.

Adames fell to 20-3, including 19 knockouts.

About 3,500 spectators watched these two go toe-to-toe for 6 1/2 rounds. Adames wilted only after giving nearly as much as he took against one of Southern California’s hot new boxing stars. Banke came into the bout as the ninth-ranked World Boxing Council super-bantamweight, and he’s sure to rise higher now.

Banke, 24, who had a serious cut over his right eye for most of the bout, knocked Adames down three times and had a big edge in the scoring. (The Times had him ahead, 50-44, at the finish.) But he was never out of danger against Adames.

And “never” was Banke’s answer afterward when asked when he thought he had Adames under control.

“I didn’t want to bang with this guy, I wanted to box him,” Banke said. “But he kept coming after me, so I had to. He could really take a shot. I was beginning to wonder if I’d ever get him out of there.”

Banke, who had 175 amateur bouts before turning pro in 1984, found himself in a street fight 20 seconds into the bout. He knocked Adames on his back with a right-left combination with 25 seconds left in the first round.

Adames charged wildly out of his corner for the second round and hurt Banke several times before Banke rallied and won the round. By the third, Adames was still scoring with blows to Banke’s jaw, but by then, Banke was showing a better defense.

Adames was trying to lean away from Banke’s punches while Banke picked off punches with his gloves, which he carried chin-high. Banke began bleeding heavily from the eye cut in the fourth, and the referee, Dr. James Jen Kin, called in the doctor to examine it.

Shortly after that, Banke, with some desperation, hit Adames with six unanswered blows and knocked him down with 5 seconds left.

The fifth round was a classic, with both little men swinging from their heels. But it was Adames’ last stand, because his left eye was rapidly swelling shut and he was getting wobbly from too many Banke shots.

Adames was obviously spent when the sixth started, and he fell for the final time under a Banke barrage. Jen Kin stopped it with 1:29 to go.

Afterward, while Banke crowed for a WBA title fight with Juan Jose Estrada, trainer Wes Ramey credited a long, lonely road in Quail Valley in Riverside County for the difference in the fight. Banke fights out of the All Heart Boxing Club of Quail Valley.

“Paul was in great shape. He’s been training for four months,” Ramey said. “He’s done 6 miles of roadwork almost every day, and tonight he needed it against that kid. He just sucked it up, and he had a little more firepower at the finish.”

In a companion 10-rounder, in a battle of Puerto Ricans in the Forum’s super-lightweight tournament quarterfinals, Sammy Fuentes (20-5), knocked out previously unbeaten Santos Cardona (17-1) in the second round.