Brandon Figueroa stops Carlos Castro in sixth round of title eliminator
Brandon Figueroa steamrolled another opponent.
The former 122-pounder, making his debut at 126, put Carlos Castro down in Round 3 and stopped him in Round 6 of a scheduled 12-round bout on the Mark Magsayo-Rey Vargas card Saturday in San Antonio.
Figueroa (23-1-1, 18 KOs) had said before the fight that he would box more than he has in past fights. That lasted about a round and a half, after which he reverted to the pressure fighter he has been throughout his career.
And that wasn’t good news for the clever Castro, who beat Figueroa to the punch and used his feet to avoid serious trouble much of the fight.
Figueroa put Castro (27-2, 12 KOs) down in the third round as a result of several hard shots and followed with a crazy barrage of 50, 60 unanswered punches.
Castro not only survived the onslaught, he went back to boxing well in Rounds 3 and 4.
The end came in an instant. Castro uncharacteristically had Figueroa pinned against the ropes when Figueroa spun his opponent and unloaded a vicious series of hard, accurate shots.
Referee Mark Nelson evidently determined that Castro could no longer defend himself and stopped the fight. The official time was 2:11.
The fight was billed as a WBC featherweight title eliminator, which means Figueroa is first in line to fight the winner of the Magsayo-Vargas main event at the Alamodome.
Figueroa was coming off his first loss, a disputed decision against Stephen Fulton in November that cost him his 122-pound title.
