26-year old middleweight hopeful Austin ‘Ammo’ Williams (13-0, 9 KOs), 162 ¼, of Houston, Texas dominated 27-year old Mexico-based Simon Madsen (13-1, 10 KOs), 160 ½, of Horsens, Denmark nearly from bell to bell in their battle of undefeated prospects. Williams weathered a few fouls from a Madsen but little other turbulence in the one-sided affair.
By the end of the fourth, Madsen’s reddened face and bloodied nose were evidence of a long night. Williams, talking to Madsen and mocking him, was superior in every facet and remained so as the rounds went by. Williams was too quick, too skilled, too crafty and Madsen could only muster token offense. Madsen lost a point for a low blow in the ninth, drawing boos from the crowd, before the fight quickly returned to form with Williams in control.
The final scores were academic for Williams with three identical 99-91 tabs in his favor. The referee was Wes Melton.
23-year old lightweight Marc Castro (9-0, 6 KOs), 133 ½, of Fresno, California, went eight rounds for the first time in his career, scoring a shutout unanimous decision with a seventh round knockdown versus 27-year old Miami-based Maickol Lopez (16-4, 8 KOs), of Mexico City, Mexico. Lopez, 132, was fighting at his highest career weight with the majority of his professional career to date contested between the bantamweight and featherweight limits. The referee was Joey Chavez.
While Lopez occasionally caught Castro’s attention with right hands, the smaller man couldn’t string offense together to hinder the steady drumbeat of leather coming from the methodical Castro. It was enough to keep Lopez upright, extending Castro past the sixth round for the first time in the Californian’s fledgling career. In the seventh, the toll of the beating mounted before Lopez voluntarily took a knee, sacrificing a knockdown for a chance to try to hear the final bell.
Those extra few seconds didn’t get Lopez anywhere near winning a round but the fight made it to the cards with Castro winning by a trifecta of 80-71 scores.
A battle of bantamweight prospects reached a sudden end. 22-year old Anthony Herrera (4-0-1, 3 KOs), 119 ½, of Los Angeles, California, dropped 28-year old Christian Sullivan (8-1, 5 KOs), 119 ¾, of Casa Grande, Arizona in round three and kept the heat on to force a third-round stoppage.
Sullivan kept it close in the first round, working the body and trying to make the fight physical. By the second, Herrera started to adjust, working off the jab and even briefly switching to southpaw. An exchange in the first minute of the third set up the finish. Herrera landed a left hook, dropping and hurting Sullivan. Sullivan beat the count but Herrera was all over him, battering Sullivan along the ropes until referee Tony Zaino waved the action complete at 1:41 of round three. Sullivan suffered his first loss while Herrera scored his first stoppage in his last three starts.
The afternoon undercard kicked off in the Jr. lightweight division.
29-year old Beatriz Ferreira (2-0, 1 KO), 129 ½, of Sao Paolo, Brazil was impressive in blasting through overmatched Carrise Brown (7-3, 4 KO), 129 ¼, of Lakeland, Florida in just two rounds. Ferreira, a 2020 Olympic silver medalist, had Brown, 36, in trouble early in the first, driving Brown to the floor near the ropes with Brown nearly toppling through. In the second, Ferreira scored a knockdown and continued to batter Brown, drawing the stoppage at 1:20 of round two. It was Brown’s first stoppage loss.
Cliff Rold is the Managing Editor of BoxingScene, a founding member of the Transnational Boxing Rankings Board, a member of the International Boxing Research Organization, and a member of the Boxing Writers Association of America. He can be reached at [email protected]