Spurning Diet, Ballard Orders Home Cooking : Boxing: Orange County fighter turns down London title bout to meet Santos in Valley.

Having declined an opportunity to fight for a world super middleweight championship, Gary Ballard will meet Roman Santos in the main event of a six-bout boxing card Wednesday at the Warner Center Marriott.

Ballard recently was offered a shot at World Boxing Council super middleweight champion Nigel Benn of Britain on Sept. 2 in London.

However, fighting as a super middleweight would have required losing 12 pounds.

“Gary isn’t a fat guy who carries around excessive weight,” promoter Gerrie Coetzee said.

“It wouldn’t be good to dehydrate him like that. That’s not good for any fighter.”

Ballard, who grew up in South Africa but lives and trains in Orange County, has a record of 18-1-1 with 16 knockouts.

His light heavyweight bout with Santos is scheduled for 10 rounds.

Santos, from Lancaster, has a record of 9-3 with three knockouts.

In the co-main event, heavyweights Shane Sutcliffe of Nanaimo, B.C., Canada, and Brad Powell of San Diego will meet in a bout also scheduled for eight rounds.

Sutcliffe has a record of 13-3 with eight knockouts. Powell is 7-6 with four knockouts.

Heavyweight Billy Wright is scheduled to meet a still-undetermined opponent in a seven-round bout.

Wright, a promising former football player who is backed by promoter Don King, has a record of 25-3 with 20 knockouts.

Two lightweight bouts scheduled for five rounds also are on the undercard.

Jimmy Nakahara (8-1, three knockouts) of Los Angeles will meet Pat Chavez (9-13) of Denver and Danny Lujan (7-1, three knockouts) of Salinas will face Jose Herrera (5-15, two knockouts) of Glendale.

In a bout scheduled for four rounds, Jim Mullen of Simi Valley will make his debut as a cruiserweight under new trainer Phil Paulonia.

Mullen, a former heavyweight, has a record of 6-3-1 with two knockouts.

His opponent, Gil Jacobs of San Diego, is 1-1 with one knockout.