Powder Delivers Pounding to Dickson

Heavyweight Joe Powder is trying to make a name for himself in boxing. He’s already changed it once.

Powder, a native of Bosnia-Herzegovina fighting out of Los Angeles, ran his record to 5-0 with a unanimous four-round decision over Marco Dickson (1-6-1) before 500 fans at the Warner Center Marriott on Wednesday night.

Powder, who changed his ring name from Jova Pouder, was 30-2 as an amateur and earned a berth on the 1992 Yugoslavian Olympic team.

But he never got the chance to fight because civil war broke out.

Powder used a four-inch height advantage effectively in the first two rounds, hitting Dickson with several blows to the body.

“He was trying to cover his head more, because he was afraid of getting knocked out,” Powder said through an interpreter. “I was able to get to the body.”

Dickson didn’t mount much of a counterattack until the final round.

Powder got caught by a few blows to the head, but didn’t waver.

“He wound up being pretty tough,” Powder said.

Jaime Ocegueda of Mexico shook off the effects of a cut over his left eye to record a unanimous decision over Angelo Nunez in the 12-round main event and claim the vacant World Boxing Board Penta Welterweight title.

Ocegueda (14-1-2) sent Nunez (13-8-3) careening around the ropes several times over the course of the fight and was never in real danger, even though he had bled profusely from the eye since the third round.

Sean Daughtry (12-1), a five-time Golden Gloves champion in New York, knocked Fransico Mendez through the ropes at the end of the second round.

Mendez (9-4) suffered a cut around his eye and was advised to stop by the ringside physician.

Light-heavyweight Kenny Coates of Colton, making his professional debut, provided the biggest surprise of the night.

Undefeated Robert Galstyan of North Hollywood was backed by a vocal group of 30 fans and was being filmed by an Armenian television crew.

But Coates came out quickly, knocking Galstyan down less than 15 seconds into the fight.

Galstyan (3-1) didn’t recover and less than two minutes later the fight was stopped.

Lightweight Danny Perez (5-0) of San Diego knocked out Manuel Castro (1-3-1) in the second round.

Heavyweight Fabian Meza of Van Nuys (2-0) knocked down Danny Shepard in the first round and took a unanimous decision.