Evelin Bermudez (right) unloads a right hand on Jessica Basulto (left) – Photo by Nelson Quispe/Boxeo de Primera
Buenos Aires, Argentina.- All great things come to an end, and the venerable Luna Park Stadium is no exception.
It was probably a sign of the times to see the “temple of Corrientes and Bouchard,” a sanctuary of masculinity and virility during the better part of the 20th century, having its final card headlined by a women’s bout in which junior flyweight champion Evelin Bermudez defended her IBF and WBO belts against Mexico’s Jessica Basulto in front of a sparsely populated stadium, a far cry from the standing-room-only sold-out crowds of yesteryear. But the hammer will nevertheless go down sometime near the end of this year, and the Luna Park founded in 1932 by Ismael Pace and Jose Lectoure will be remodeled to an extend that it is not yet known even by its current handlers.
Declared a national monument due to the many historic events that took place within it (the first meeting between Juan Domingo Peron and his soon-to-be wife Evita being only one of them), the Luna Park cannot be completely torn down, and its outer shell should remain intact. But the floor upon which people like Pope John Paul II, Frank Sinatra, Muhammad Ali and countless boxers and performers set foot during the last 90-plus years will definitely be gone, and so will the stands on which several generations learned to love and appreciate fighters such as Oscar Bonavena, Jose Maria Gatica, Eduardo Lausse, Carlos Monzon, Victor Galindez, Pascual Perez and thousands more.
Rodrigo Ruiz (left) lands a hook on Freddy Lainez – Photo by Nelson Quispe/Boxeo de Primera
The main event itself was worthy of the stadium’s best nights, with the 27-year-old Bermudez being her usual feisty self against a visitor bent on ruining her big night. Basulto led with her head and threw punches in bunches in the first three rounds, but Bermudez remained calm, connecting with power and accuracy to keep her at bay most of the time. The champion moved in for the kill in round six and started applying more pressure on her increasingly desperate opponent, who had suffered a flash knockdown in the first round. With the punishment accumulating on Basulto and with Bermudez ahead on all scorecards, Basulto’s corner threw in the towel in the eighth round and referee Alejandro Grispo agreed to halt the contest. With the win, Bermudez improves to 20-1-1 (7 knockouts) while Basulto, a former challenger to champion Yokasta Valle at strawweight, drops to 12-2 (3 KOs).
Gabriela Celeste Alaniz (center) holds her three belts at Luna Park Stadium on May 4, 2024 – Photo by Nelson Quispe/Boxeo de Primera
Earlier, Rodrigo Ruiz made quick work of Nicaragua’s Freddy Lainez with a demolishing stoppage in the very first round of a scheduled 10-rounder in the junior featherweight division. Two knockdowns in rapid succession led referee Adrian Ayunta to make the decision to stop the bout in favor of Ruiz, who thus improved to 19-0 (14 KOs) at the expense of Lainez’s 18-5 (13 KOs) ledger.
In other results, Venezuela’s Jonathan Hernandez thoroughly dominated Mariano Sandoval (8-3, 3 KOs) over six entertaining rounds in the middleweight division to improve to 14-0 (9 KOs), and earlier on Jennifer Meza (9-3, 3 KOs) overcame a slow and shaky start to rally down the stretch and earn a close win over Venezuela’s Roxana Colmenarez (10-4-1, 8 KOs).
As the ring is being taken down one last time at the old Luna Park, Ring writer Diego Morilla rings the final bell – Photo courtesy of Brenda Melgar
Before the main event, a celebration for recently crowned Ring champion Gabriela Celeste Alaniz (the first Argentine female fighter to earn a Ring championship) took place in the ring, with this writer representing the magazine in the ceremony as Alaniz received her WBA, WBC and WBO belts.
Bermudez’s stoppage win meant that the Canelo Alvarez-Jaime Munguia fight, which started almost simultaneously with the live main event at the stadium, would stretch beyond closing time, but the local crew was gracious enough to allow a group of passionate scribes to remain in the building as they performed the final act of disassembling the ring.
As we all watched the last few rounds of the Canelo-Munguia bout huddled around a cell phone screen, the real spectacle that should have commanded our attention was the bittersweet view of the boxing ring being dismantled one last time in a place built and inhabited by giants of the game. If that painful sight was the last punch ever thrown at the old Luna Park, I’d like to believe that the lucky handful of writers who witnessed the moment took it right on the chin in honor of those who built the legend of this brick and mortar enclosure with their blood, sweat and tears, a place with a magical name that will forever hold the dreams of hundreds of fighters and the imagination of an entire nation.
A few years will have to go by before we finally know if the new Luna Park is capable of inspiring a similar aura of awe and respect.
For those of us who heard the final bell toll within its walls and swallowed that hard and cold slab of heartbreak, and for the millions of boxing fans who sat on their stands across nine decades and half a dozen generations, we certainly believe that the architects in charge of the project will have their work cut out for them.
Diego M. Morilla has written for The Ring since 2013. He has also written for HBO.com, ESPN.com and many other magazines, websites, newspapers and outlets since 1993. He is a full member of the Boxing Writers Association of America and an elector for the International Boxing Hall of Fame. He has won two first-place awards in the BWAA’s annual writing contest, and he is the moderator of The Ring’s Women’s Ratings Panel. He served as copy editor for the second era of The Ring en Español (2018-2020) and is currently a writer and editor for RingTV.com.