Paladini, Fire play to record-setting tie
The following are odds and ends from the local sports scene.
PALADINI, FIRE PICK
UP ANOTHER TIE
The Chicago Fire set the all-time Major League Soccer record for ties in a single season Thursday night. The Fire battled to a 1-1 deadlock against visitingD.C. United.
St. Francis High graduate Daniel Paladini is a midfielder for the Fire, which is 2-7-15 for 21 points and in last place in the Eastern Conference. Since recording a 1-0 win against the Columbus Crew on June 12, the Fire has gone 0-3-7. Chicago has 10 matches left, beginning with a home contest against Toronto FC at 4 p.m. PDT today.
In 16 matches, 13 of which have been starts, Paladini, the 2002 All-Area Boys’ Soccer Player of the Year, has recorded 11 shots on goals. He’s played 1,132 minutes.
GFC BOXERS SET
FOR BIG BOUTS
Both coming off disappointing draws, Glendale boxers Gapo “The Ghost” Tolmajyan and Art “Lionheart” Hovhannesyan are set to return to the ring in September.
Tolmajyan is scheduled to fight on a historic card in Yerevan, Armenia, on Sept. 3 that is reportedly the first-ever professional boxing event to be held in Armenia.
Tolmajyan (10-1-1), who trains at the Glendale Fighting Club along with Hovhannesyan, is scheduled to fight Miguel Angel Mungia (20-21-1, 17 KOs) in the event’s co-feature. The card is headlined by Vic Darchinyan taking on Evans Mbamba. Tolmajyan recently had an eight-fight winning streak snapped when he fought to a six-round draw on June 3 in Woodland Hills.
Hovhannesyan’s bout with Cristobal Cruz on Aug. 5 ended in a split draw as Cruz was opened up by an unintentional head butt and the bout was stopped before the end of the fourth round.
Hovhannesyan (14-0-2, 8 KOs) is set to fight a to-be-determined opponent on Sept. 30 at the Chumash Casino in Santa Ynez for a ShoBox card on Showtime. Hovhannesyan fought Cruz at Chumash on ESPN2 and his prior bout was a victory over Archie Ray Marquez at Chumash on ShoBox.
GAMBURYAN FORCED
OUT OF UFC 135 BOUT
Glendale-trained mixed-martial-arts fighter Manny Gamburyan was recently forced to drop out of his upcoming featherweight bout against Diego Nunes.
“I’m off from the UFC 135 card, I hurt my shoulder and MRI is not looking good,” Gamburyan wrote on his Twitter account Monday. “I just wanna say sorry to all my friends and fans, I’ll be back!”
Gamburyan (11-6) and Nunes (16-2) were set to face off in the Ultimate Fighting Championship’s blockbuster UFC 135 card in Denver on Sept. 24 that is set to be headlined by a light heavyweight title bout between Jon “Bones” Jones and Quinton “Rampage” Jackson.
Gamburyan, who trains locally at the Glendale Fighting Club and Main Event Gym, was looking to erase a two-fight losing streak that began with a loss in a World Extreme Cagefighting featherweight title loss to Jose Aldo, one of the sport’s pound-for-pound best, and continued with a close decision loss to Tyson Griffin on June 26 at UFC Live 4.