Clash of Heads Gives Corrales MD Win

By: Marc Livitz: An accidental head butt halted an entertaining contest between Jezreel "El Invisible" Corrales and Robinson Castellanos at the Forum in Los Angeles on Saturday evening. Half a minute into round ten and with the WBA super world super featherweight title hanging in the balance for Corrales, the action was stopped and a closely fought scrap was brought to a close. The scorecards at the time of the stoppage gave Corrales a majority decision victory. A rematch should occur as soon as possible.

This was a good one. Corrales (22-1, 8 KO’s) easily outpaced Castellanos in the first round. His initial outing in a United States ring was starting out well, while his opponent from Guanajuato state in Mexico was still riding the wave he encountered after he made Yuriorkis Gamboa quit in the seventh round two months ago.

A clash of heads in round two due to the orthodox (Castellanos) versus southpaw matchup produced a cut on the head of Robinson. The action was halted in round three when Jezreel was tagged with a low blow. Castellanos (24-13, 14 KO’s) connected with hard rights and lefts in the closing minute. A flash knockdown occurred in the opening seconds of the fourth. Corrales smiled after he was caught with a right/left combination. A minute later, he went down again when his Mexican adversary tagged him with a lowly placed right hook to the head. The WBA champion appeared to have dug himself into a hole through four completed rounds. Jezreel had a better fifth. The man from Panama with his hair dyed platinum blonde showed great footwork but needed his punches to follow suit.

Robinson looked to utilize his bag of tricks against the champion. Corrales stayed in a southpaw stance but was also dropping his lead right hand. Robinson stayed the course and stalked his Panamanian opponent. As the blood caked on his forehead, he was having a good seventh until a straight left from Corrales sent him to the canvas, although he’d blocked the punch. He’d actually hit himself. Jezreel was the clear aggressor in the next round and may have pulled even heading into the ninth. Castellanos used his left jab throughout the period in the closely contested bout. He’d not done this to a high degree before this. The last few seconds saw the two men trade uppercuts and body shots.

An accidental, brutal head butt halted the fight just thirty seconds into the tenth. An awful gash appeared under Robinson’s right eye, which caused referee Jerry Cantu to ask the ringside doctor for advice. The bout was stopped, so the scorecards up to that point, including the thirty one elapsed seconds of the tenth would determine the winner.

Pat Russell scored it 96-92, Carla Caiz saw it 94-93 and Zac Young tallied a score of 94-94 to award the majority decision win to Jezreel "El Invisible" Corrales.