Westminster’s Tapia Tops Irvine Card Tonight

Lightweights Gustavo Tapia of Westminster and Jose Reynosa of La Habra will meet in tonight’s 10-round main event at the Irvine Marriott.

Tapia (8-8-4) is coming off a split-decision loss to world-ranked Wilfredo Ruiz (26-4) in June in Miami. Reynosa (8-7-6) lost a decision to Daniel Lynem on the undercard of the Shane Mosley-Wilfredo Rivera fight Sept. 25 in Temecula.

The undercard, which begins at 7:30 p.m., will feature promising lightweight Joe Shedarowich (1-0) of Fountain Valley against Pedro Ochoa (2-0-1) of Coachella.

Irvine Marriott promoter Roy Englebrecht announced he has signed a two-year deal with the hotel that will allow him to continue to stage shows every other month on Thursday nights.

The first card of 2000 is scheduled Jan. 27. Englebrecht said he is talking to Long Beach welterweight Raul Franco about fighting in the main event. Franco (14-0), who has no promoter or manager, has fought only twice this year.