Casamayor stops Katsidis in a Lightweight thriller

By Marc Abrams

Joel Casamayor scored a sensational tenth round stoppage over Michael Katsidis to retain his world Lightweight championship in a thrilling fight at The Morango Resort on Cabazon, California.

The fight was almost over in the blink of an eyelash as Casamayor scored two hard knockdowns in round one with vicious left hands. Katsidis began to bleed from his nose and eyes began to swell up. It took Katsidis few rounds to get into the fight and he finally did in round four as he began to catch Casamayor with some hard right hands.

In round five, the momentum continued to swing Katsidis way as he continued to fight to push the older Casamayor back. In round six, Katsidis stunned Casamayor with a left the body then followed up with a big right and left that sent Casamayor through the ropes.

Casamayor stemmed the tide for a few rounds and the fight was close going into the late rounds.

In round nine, Casamayor was docked a point for a low blow. Katsidis tried to make an empathic statement as he started round ten by coming with hard punches. Casamayor timed one of those big hooks with a huge left of his own which nailed Katsidis on the jaw that sent Katsidis to the canvas. Katsidis beat the count easily and the fight continued for just a few seconds as Casamayor landed three hard punches which included a thudding right hook and the fight was stopped by referee John Schorle at thirty seconds of round ten.

Casamayor of Cuba is now 36-3-1 with twenty-two knockouts. Katsidis of Australia is now 23-1.

Librado Andrade scored an impressive eighth round stoppage over Robert Stieglitz in an IBF Super Middleweight elimination bout.

Andrade fought very agressively and he was effective with straight right hands and body shots. Andrade started to find a home with right uppercuts which started a stream of blood from the nose of Stieglitz. As per his nature, Andrade showed an impecable beard as Stieglitz landed many flush right hands that Andrade just walked through.

Round six was a foreshadow of things to come as Andrade's work backed Stieglitz into the corner with a hard flurry of punches. In round eight, Andrade drove Stieglitz back with a clipping right hand. Andrade jumped on his prey and landed a hard flurry of power punches that forced referee Ray Corona to stop the bout at 1:53

Andrade will not get a shot at IBF champion Lucien Bute with a record of 27-1 with twenty-one knockouts. Stieglitz of Germany is now 33-2.