By Ryan Maquiñana
Norcalboxing.net
Dallas, seen here in a previous fight, was on point Friday in a stoppage win. (Goossen Tutor)
A trio of local pros won their respective matchups at the Soboba Casino in San Jacinto on a card televised by ESPN2 Friday Nights.
In the main event, Bakersfield junior welterweight Mike Dallas Jr. (19-2-1, 8 KOs), who has been training in Hayward and Oakland with Virgil Hunter, overwhelmed Mexico's Javier Castro (27-5, 22 KOs) in the sixth round with speed and power en route to a referee stoppage. Dallas annexed the WBO Latino 140-pound regional title.
The co-feature saw Sacramento middleweight and 2011 CSNBayArea.com NorCal Prospect of the Year Brandon Gonzales (16-0, 10 KOs) remain unbeaten with an eight-round shutout of Elie Augustama (6-5, 3 KOs) of Haiti. Scores were 80-72 across the board. After the bout, Gonzales, who also trains with Hunter, had 11 stitches applied to two cuts near his left eye. Earlier in camp, Gonzales had actually opened the cut in sparring with unified super middleweight champion Andre Ward, but glued it shut and fought anyway.
Brandon was actually the subject of our CSN Spotlight this week: Click HERE to read how boxing is a love story in more ways than one for him.
Off-TV, Sacramento's Guy Robb (8-1, 4 KOs) made a successful transition from 130 to 126 pounds in a fifth-round stoppage of Las Vegas-based Rodrigo Aranda (8-18, 2 KOs). Robb, who participated in the 2011 CSNBayArea.com NorCal Fight and Round of the Year, finished the job with a body shot.
Special thanks to all three fighters for taking out the time to talk to Norcalboxing.net immediately after their victories.
MIKE DALLAS JR.
ON THE FINAL SEQUENCE LEADING UP TO THE STOPPAGE:
“In the fifth round, I seen the body shots starting to hurt
him, and I was able to finish him with a right hand, left hook, then another
right hand. He was wobbly and off his
feet and I knew I could get him out of there."
ON WORKING WITH VIRGIL HUNTER FOR THE THIRD STRAIGHT FIGHT:
"Virgil’s really helped me with my inside game and he’s brought
a lot to my skill set.
I’ve been sitting on my punches and setting my feet more. Before I’d have the mindset to be quick and
get out. Virgil told me to slow it down
a little bit. This time we worked on
placing punches, too."
ON WHO HE'D LIKE TO FIGHT NEXT:
"We’re ready for anything.
Whatever my team puts in front of me next, let’s do it."
BRANDON GONZALES
ON THE CUT THAT STREAMED BLOOD THROUGHOUT THE BOUT:
"Actually, I first got this cut over my eye a
couple weeks ago in sparring with Andre [Ward]. I could've pulled out, but I glued it shut. My cutman Carlos Vargas did a great job to keep it from flowing as long as he could. I already had one
date pull out in January and I wanted to get out there and show what I could
do."
ON THE CUT AFFECTING HIS VISION BUT NOT HIS RESOLVE:
"I couldn't see out of my left eye
around the fourth or fifth round on, but I had to get it done."
GUY ROBB
ON THE STOPPAGE:
"I was coming forward and he was coming forward, so there were a lot of
headbutts. I wanted to end it because I
was worried about getting cut. I went to
the corner after the fourth, and [trainer] Ray Woods told me to throw the right
cross-left hook combination, and I got him with a left hook to the
body."
ON THE NEW WEIGHT CLASS:
"They kept telling me to use my jab and it took a couple rounds, but in the end I was pretty dominant. I feel strong at 126. That’s where I need to be. I felt comfortable. I wasn’t drained or nothing. It felt good to be back after five months."
ON THE NEW WEIGHT CLASS:
"They kept telling me to use my jab and it took a couple rounds, but in the end I was pretty dominant. I feel strong at 126. That’s where I need to be. I felt comfortable. I wasn’t drained or nothing. It felt good to be back after five months."
Norcalboxing.net's Ryan Maquiñana is a member of the Boxing Writers Association of America and Ring Magazine’s Ratings Panel. E-mail him at rmaquinana@gmail.com, check out his weekly column for Comcast SportsNet Bay Area, his archive for BoxingScene.com, or follow him on Twitter: @RMaq28.
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