Jose Luis Castillo knocks out young Ivan Popoca to grab career’s 64th win – Boxing news
Jose Luis Castillo, the former NABF light welterweight champion, obliterated his Friday night opponent Ivan Popoca, the young Mexican hailing pounder, and grabbed an eighth round technical knockout win in the 10-round bout to collect his hefty career’s 64th
win.
The duo co-headlined the fight card jointly organised and promoted by Dominic Pesoli of 8 Count Productions and Leon Margules of Warriors Boxing. The showdown was held at UIC Pavilion in Chicago, Illinois, United States, witnessing Glen Johnson headline
the pay-per-view against Andrzej Fonfara in a non-title light heavyweight bout.
The ESPN2 Friday Night Fight weekly special edition can be easily dubbed as a clash between veterans and surging young pugilists since both the main and the co-main event saw veterans collide with young brawlers.
Jose, totally opposite to his age, shunned the critics and analysts’ wild talk regarding him getting retired by truly dominating the bout against Ivan. Popoca struggled hard from the very first second to hold his ground but was unable to do so.
During the first two rounds, the southpaw Jose emphatically used his left hook to connect lethal jabs. The power of the heavily experienced Mexican veteran was visible from the fact that in both the first and second round, Ivan almost lost his senses.
Popoca, who was coming after a 14-month gap, after getting brutally pummelled, shifted his stance to southpaw. The shift in game plan produced results as Castillo started to move back by Ivan’s tough shots.
Despite the fact that Ivan was starting to dominate the bout, in the final seconds of the third round, an accidental head butt busted Ivan’s left eye open as a result blood started to gush out.
Popoca showed great resilience and continued with his game plan while entering the fourth round. Jose capitalised Ivan’s injury and connected a beautiful left-right combination that was followed by another powerful shot.
From then onwards, till the start of the eighth round, the jam packed UIC pavilion witnessed Castillo batter Ivan vehemently. With the end of the eighth round, Ivan decided to forfeit the bout as he lost all his gas and got seriously fatigued by the continuous
well targeted shots.
After the impressive win, Jose stated, “I feel good and I am happy with the performance. I hurt my right hand in the fourth and really hurt my left in the sixth and that is why I didn’t knock him out. I feel great though and I am back. I want two more six
or eight round fights just to get my timing perfect and then I am ready for anyone and the biggest fights.”
With this win, Jose has collected his 64th win out of a total 76 bouts whereas Ivan, unfortunately had received his second career loss.
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