Casamayor stops Katsidis in an exciting war!

Joel Casamayor turned back clock a bit tonight against Michael Katsidis, stopping the younger fighter in the 10th round of what was a sensational crowdpleasing affair. In the first round, Casamayor stunned Katsidis with straight left hands and managed to drop him twice. A brave Katsidis rose from both of the flash knockdowns and managed to finish the round.

Casamayor displayed his cageyness in dealing with the incoming rushes of Katsidis by settling down into more of a counterpuncher's role in round two and catching Katsidis as he would attempt to close the distance. Katsidis showed more effort in rounds three through five, as he applied constant pressure and fired hooks to Casamayor's body. His style, the way he applied pressure and threw shots in this fight, somewhat reminded me of Ricky Hatton. Casamayor looked to be gradually slowing down (due to the body shots, from my view) by the 6th round, when Katsidis stunned and off balance Casamayor, hurt him with a body shot, and knocked him through ropes!

Casamayor made his way back into the ring by the count of the nine and made it out of the round. In rounds eight and nine, experience and skill became major factors in the fight as Casamayor began to turn the tide back into his favor by utilizing the space in the ring and outboxing Katsidis. Referee Jon Schorle docked Casamayor a point for low blows in round nine. In round 10, Casamayor dropped Katsidis and had him in on wobbly legs when Schorle opted to rescue Katsidis from taking any further punishment and declared Casamayor the winner by TKO. As it turns out, I was wrong in my analysis. I was very very very wrong.

Official scores prior to the knockout were 84-83, 84-83 Katsidis and 85-82 Casamayor. Boxing Chronicles had it 84-83 Katsidis at the time of the stoppage. The scoring was irrelevant, however, as Casamayor retained his linear lightweight championship. The only fight that matters at lightweight right now is Casamayor vs Campbell II for all of the marbles!

On the undercard, former world title challenger and television favorite Librado Andrade stopped Michael Stieglitz in the eighth round of a twelve round IBF super middleweight elimination fight.