By Peter Lim

Lightweight Saul Montes (4-1) ventured into hostile territory and pulled off a minor upset against a popular hometown fighter at the Bayou City Events Center in Houston. Montes, 20, handed Omar "Pinky" Tello (4-1, 3 KOs) his first loss via four-round majority decision.

Deploying a strike-and-smother fight plan, Montes effectively neutralized Tello's range for his vaunted combination punching. First to the punch, Montes of San Antonio, snuck in jabs, hooks and right hands and crowded Tello on the inside, denying him the chance to retaliate. Tello, 18, landed the occasional lead right and body shot but they were too few and far between to swing the momentum his way. The scores were 40-36 and 39-37 for Montes, and 38-38.

The card was staged by Savarese Boxing Promotions.

In the main event, welterweight Rogelio De La Torre (13-4, 7 KOs) stopped Marteze Logan (26-56-2, 6 KOs) in the fourth round. Applying relentless pressure throughout, De La Torre forced Logan to the ropes and ripped in solid shots to the head and body. Logan's corner tossed in the towel midway through the fourth round, although Logan did not seem particularly hurt.

Houston firefighter Lanard Lane (14-3, 9 KOs) got in a good workout to sand away the 14 months of ring rust he had accumulated. Lane peppered and pounded Aaron Anderson (3-29, 1 KO) with both hands from all angles throughout until the referee waved the fight over in the sixth and final round.

Featherweight Pablo Cruz (7-0, 2 KOs) scored a shutout over a tough Guadalupe Perez (2-15) in a four-round slugfest. A regular fixture at the Savarese fights, Cruz has gained a raucous following that includes his own marching band.

Junior lightweight Marc Torres (3-0, 3 KOs) knocked southpaw Juan Gabriel (0-1) in the first round. Torres dropped Gabriel with a left hook to the body midway through the round. Gabriel rose at the count of nine but was quickly on the canvass again, this time for the full count, from a flurry of shots.

In a size mismatch Omar Hillail (1-0, 1 KO) needed just 31 seconds to flatten Josh Rowton (0-1). Hillail dropped Rowton with left-right-left in the opening seconds. Rowton barely beat the count but a straight right smack on the kisser soon knocked him out cold. Although they weighed in only five pounds apart (Hillail, 147 to Rowton, 142) it looked like a middleweight against a featherweight.

Female welterweight La' Travia Pierce (2-0, 1 KO) survived a fourth-round knockdown to win a four-round decision against Kimberly Colbert (3-16, 2 KOs). Pierce is trained by veteran guru Ronnie Shields.