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Philippines, 20 Apr 2024 |
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Brian Castaño, A Rising Star? By Ralph Rimpell PhilBoxing.com Thu, 22 Jul 2021  Brian Castaño. The year was 1987 and the matchup was then WBA lightweight champion Edwin Rosario facing a guy named Julio Cesar Chavez who happened to be WBC junior lightweight champion and had a record of 56-0. Chavez had surpassed former heavyweight champion Rocky Marciano’s undefeated record of 49-0 two years previously with virtually no fanfare. Rosario had momentum from previous fights and was ready for super stardom. Rosario was a former WBC lightweight champion with a record of 28-1, 28KOs at the time. He split fights with former Mexican great Jose Luis Ramirez, losing the title he had previously had beaten Ramirez for to become champion and was now looking to greener pastures and bigger fight purses by moving up to the lightweight division to challenge the star of the division WBC lightweight champion Hector Camacho. Rosario gave Camacho all he could handle for 12 rounds. It was arguably the toughest fight at that point of Camacho’s boxing career. Camacho barely won with a close split decision victory. Some thought Rosario should have won the fight. Camacho was reportedly offered a guaranteed 2 million dollars to rematch with Rosario, but he declined. Unable to secure a rematch with Camacho, Rosario was offered a fight against Camacho’s fellow titlist at 135lbs, WBA champion Livingston Bramble. Bramble was the fighter who sent Ray Mancini into his first retirement. Rosario took the fight against Bramble and knocked him out impressively in 2 rounds. Camacho, after another defense, vacated his title and moved to the junior welterweight division (140lbs). Rosario was heavily marketed on the boxing network he fought on and it appeared that it would be a foregone conclusion that Rosario would obliterate junior lightweight champion Julio Cesar Chavez. Chavez shocked the boxing world and stopped (by knockout) Rosario in the 11th round showing the Boxing world that he was the true Star! Chavez went on to become a mainstream Star (a household name) and gave fight fans many memorable fights before he eventually retired. Last Saturday, WBO junior middleweight champion Brian Castaño (17-0-1, 12KOs) fought WBA/WBC/IBF junior middleweight champion Jermell Charlo (36-1-1, 18KOs) in a highly anticipated unification match that ended in a controversial draw after 12 rounds. According to CompuBox, Castaño landed 29.5% of his total punches, while Charlo landed 28.3% of his total punches. Castaño sent 2 messages last Saturday. The first was to Charlo. Castaño like Chavez, even though Castaño did not receive an official victory against Charlo as Chavez did against Rosario, did NOT show up to be a losing opponent for Charlo. The second message, Castaño again showed the boxing world that he can fight. For those who may not know, Castaño previously held the WBA (regular) junior middleweight championship and fought to a draw with Erislandy Lara who is a former junior middle weight champion and is simultaneously the current WBA (regular) middleweight champion and WBA (regular) middleweight champion. Castaño comes from a boxing family as his Dad was a former professional fighter. The younger Castaño had a reported amateur record of 181-5-5 and holds an amateur win over current unified welterweight champion Errol Spence, according to BoxingInsider.com. So where does Castaño go from here after his fight with Charlo? Does he do an immediate rematch with Charlo, fight contender Tim Tszyu (son of former unified junior welterweight champion and Hall of Famer Kostya Tszyu) who challenged Castaño after the controversial draw with Charlo, or does he fight someone else? The best course appears to be a rematch with Charlo. If Castaño can officially defeat Charlo that would make Castaño a potential Pay Per View (PPV) Star! Why? Castaño can fight, Castaño would have 4 major recognized championship belts making him the first in the 154lbs division to accomplish that feat, and he is a Latin fighter which will appeal to the Latin base of fight fans who will no doubt support him on PPV. Whether it was Julio Cesar Chavez, De La Hoya, or Felix Trinidad it did not matter to the Latino Base what Latin country or territory a fighter came from. On fight night fans purchased the PPV fight. The fact that these fighters were Latin and they were also great fighters was enough to generate millions of dollars in revenue PPV from the Latin base. Castaño has proven he can fight thus far. What Castaño has to now do is to continue to win. If Castaño is advised properly, which will no doubt happen as he is a Premier Boxing Champion fighter which is headed by Al Haymon, Castaño can become a Mainstream Star. Boxing Notes A another Boxing website has reported that undefeated WBO welterweight champion Terrence Crawford is receiving criticism after he gave his thoughts on unified junior middleweight champion Jermell Charlo’s performance against WBO junior middleweight champion Brian Castaño. The article referenced multiple Fan feedback to Crawford’s comment and Crawford’s friendly responses to the fans. Yes, it is a fact Crawford has not beaten a P4P fighter since he became undisputed champion against Julius Indongo back in 2017 at junior welterweight (140lbs). No disrespect to any fellow boxing writers/boxing journalist or boxing fans, however such criticism is really unfair. WHY? Terrence Crawford does NOT duck or “Cherry pick” his opponents. According to this writer’s P4P list, Crawford CONTINUES TO BE ranked number one (#1). Former unified welterweight champion Keith Thurman once asked for $10million dollars to fight Crawford as reported by another website last August in 2020. Current unified welterweight champion Errol Spence who has signed to fight Manny Pacquiao next month (August 21, 2021) has previously said the financial split for a Crawford fight would be 70%-30% or 80%-20% purse split in his favor (Spence) if he and Crawford fought. Crawford has also been unable to secure a fight with future Hall of Famer Manny Pacquiao. The reality of it all is that both fighters in ANY boxing match should receive the MOST financial compensation possible because both fighters risk their lives in the process. However, both fighters have to agree to financial terms for the fight to be made. Crawford should not lose his place on the P4P list because he and his Peers were unable to reach a financial agreement. Crawford should only lose his place on the P4P list for a LOSS, POOR PERFOMANCE, DUCKING, ”CHERRY PICKING” OPPONENTS, RETIREMENT, INACTIVITY, ETC… Unified Heavyweight Champion Anthony Joshua has a very tough fight against former undefeated unified cruiserweight champion Oleksandr Usky when they fight this September. This writer says that Usyk is a better fighter than Andy Ruiz. Therefore, this fight will determine if the Boxing world will see Joshua vs the winner of Fury v Wilder… Talking about Fury v Wilder which has been postponed until October 2021 due to Fury’s positive Covid 19 diagnosis, their fight will be a rubber-match as the two fought previously. The first bout ended in a controversial draw. Fury was leading on all scorecards. Wilder knocked down Fury in the 12th round and some alleged Fury received a slow count instead of being knockout for a victory for Wilder. Rather, Fury recovered and was able to finish the fight, and some say Fury should have been awarded the decision regardless of the knockdown instead of the draw, because Fury was leading on the scorecards. In their second fight Last November, Wilder’s trainer threw in the towel in the 7th round as Fury battered Wilder. Multiple allegations of misconduct were made by Wilder against Fury and Wilder’s co-trainer Mark Breland which led to Breland’s firing. Wilder also stated that his costume he wore for the ring entrance had weakened him. He also hinted to personal problems outside of boxing playing a factor in the loss. So when the two meet again in October 2021 for a third time, hopefully, the question of who is truly the better fighter will be settled...Former 2x undefeated WBC 168lbs champion David Benavidez says he is coming down from 168lbs to 160lbs to fight WBC middleweight champion Jermall Charlo. Is there any confirmation that Charlo has agreed to fight Benavidez? Regardless, this is in hopes that Canelo Alvarez with grant him a match if he can defeat Charlo. Shortly after Charlo successfully defended his title from a very spirited challenge by Juan Montiel last month, Canelo has expressed an interest in fighting Charlo. Benavidez could keep himself in the Canelo sweepstake discussion not by going to 160lbs but by challenging one of the 175lbs champion and winning. This seems to be what fight fans are saying where they would like to see Benavidez fight if he can’t secure a Charlo or Canelo fight at this point. Contact Writer: RLuvsboxing@aol.com ***Ralph Rimpell is a writer based out of New York and is a Boxing Correspondent for Philboxing.com. Ralph holds an undergraduate degree from City University of New York. He has been a Boxing Writer for over ten years having written for several top boxing websites on the World Wide Web. Before becoming a writer, Ralph's passion was for professional wrestling until he realized professional wrestling was entertainment and not a real sport. It was at that time the 1984 US Olympic team made up of future stars such as Evander Holyfield, Meldrick Taylor, Pernell Whitaker, etc. entered the professional ranks and signed with promotional outfit Main Events.It was also at that time a young exciting Heavyweight originally hailing from Brooklyn named Mike Tyson also turned professional and became the face of boxing. Young boxing fan Ralph just couldn't get enough of boxing as a large part of it was being broadcast on "free TV". As time went on, Ralph felt boxing writers were not being forthcoming with their boxing coverage, opinion pieces, interviews, etc. So Ralph decided to write an article and submitted it to a Boxing website thinking it would be deleted and ignored by the Editor. To Ralph's surprise his article was posted on their website and the readers embraced it. The rest is history. "I thank God for the Internet because it has created opportunities for writers like myself who likely would not have been given an opportunity to write for print publications. I hope someday soon to expand my role in Boxing on different levels." -- Ralph Rimpell Click here to view a list of other articles written by Ralph Rimpell.  |
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