BOXING AT THE BREN CENTER : Hipp Scores Knockout in Less Than 30 Seconds

Joe Hipp’s nickname might be “The Boss,” but he barely got a chance to work Monday night.

Less than 30 seconds into the first round of his heavyweight fight with Cleveland Woods at the Bren Center, Hipp knocked out Woods with a powerful overhand left.

Hipp, a left-hander who is ranked 21st by the World Boxing Council, threw only two punches in the fight, which ended before some of the 1,000 fans had settled down for the scheduled 10-round main event of the second LBNT Pro Sports card.

Hipp, 28, paced around the ring in the early going, brushing off a couple of weak jabs before catching Woods with a right-left combination that knocked him down.

“Right away I saw he had his right hand a little low,” Hipp said. “He was throwing his jab and leaning back. Right then I threw an overhand left and hit him right on the chin.”

It was the 20th consecutive victory for Hipp (21-1) and the seventh consecutive knockout. He had beaten Woods (13-4), who lives in Las Vegas, in a five-round decision in 1989.

For Hipp, who is part Blackfoot Indian, it was also his fourth victory of 1991. It was only his second fight since he took two months off from training because of an injury to an eye socket, but he showed no ill effects from the layoff Monday night.

In a six-round undercard fight, junior welterweight Joey Martin of La Habra beat Ernie Tobias of Westminster in a unanimous decision.

Martin (6-0) took some strong body punches in the early rounds but used superior boxing skills to stay out of reach and score with his jab. Tobias (5-8), needing a sixth-round knockout, came after Martin aggressively in the final round, but Martin countered effectively.

In a super welterweight preliminary, Shane Kaplan, a former kickboxer from Irvine, was knocked out in the fourth round by James Rivas of Phoenix.

Throughout the fight, Kaplan (3-2) came aggressively toward Rivas (1-2-1), who met each of his advances with left jabs.

Rivas staggered Kaplan in each of the first three rounds and as the fight progressed, Rivas appeared to be measuring Kaplan for one of his rights.

Kaplan came out aggressively in the fourth round, but his punches weren’t landing. Rivas met him with a flurry of punches, and the referee stopped the fight 36 seconds into the round.