Licona, Valenzuela Headline Irvine Fight Card

Super bantamweight Marcos Licona of Westminster will headline the last boxing card of 1997 at the Irvine Marriott tonight.

Licona (10-1-1), who lost the state title to Carlos Navarro at the Marriott in August, will fight journeyman Enrique Valenzuela (18-17, 14 knockouts) of Mexico in the eight-round main event.

In the semi-main event, middleweight Nick Martinez (7-0) of Basset faces Anthony Brown (13-5-1) of Phoenix in an eight-rounder. Featherweight Dustin Kim of Hawaii, who has won his first four bouts by knockout, is the featured fighter on the four-bout undercard, which begins at 7:30 p.m. Kim will face Oswaldo Valenzuela (9-9-1, five knockouts) of Mexico.

Next year, the Marriott fights will switch back to Thursday nights after a year of Friday night shows.

“We had a fair amount of season ticket holders say they preferred Thursdays,” Marriott boxing publicist Jeff Clark said. “We wanted to make it a priority to get back to Thursdays.”

Because of the Marriott’s convention schedule, only six Thursday dates are available next year--Jan. 22, March 26, May 28, July 30, Sept. 10 and Nov. 19. So promoter Roy Englebrecht will cut back his shows from 12 to seven. One Saturday card will be in December.