RGV native and fan favorite "El Gallo Fino" Sammy Castaneda exacted revenge on the rugged Houston-based veteran Julio Sanchez to move his record to 9-0-1 (7). Castaneda suffered the first and only blemish on his record. However, he righted that wrong at the Payne Arena in Hidalgo on Friday night. He stayed calm and patient, jabbing and maintaining the pace of the fight. The two traded hooks early with Castaneda's landing cleaner. The RGV native had a few moments early with the left hook early in the first round. He later scored with a nice counter right to close a competitive opening round. Castaneda relied much more on movement than he did in the first fight. While Sanchez looked to load up one shot. Sanchez was able to score with right hands over Castanedas low lead hand. A counter left hook put an off-balanced Castaneda on the floor in the second. However, the undefeated RGV native got up, dusted himself off, stayed calm, and took control of the fight starting in round three. Castaneda, on the advice of his corner, picked up the aggression and appeared to carry the third with precise left hooks and precise power shots on the inside. Sanchez scored with some clean counters and had answers. However, Castaneda was breaking his man down and seemed to chip away at that lead Sanchez built after the two-point round in the second. Castaneda landed clean left hooks one after another and mixed in some uppercuts in round four. By the fifth, it was a dog fight with Sammy leading the exchanges and Sanchez scoring with counters and catching Castaneda when he left himself open. However, it was Sanchez that was really starting to slow down as Castaneda slammed on the gas and let it go in the final round. The two traded on the inside throughout the final stanza. Castaneda landed a beautiful it on the right hand and followed up with a body shot to put an exclamation point on the fight and capture a hard-earned but clear points victory. Taking a majority decision by scores of 57-56 X2, with the third judge scoring 57-57 even.
In the opening bout of the evening Alex "El Bazooka" Ramos of Laredo moved his record to 5-1 (3) and put on a highly impressive display of power, dropping his rugged opponent Irving Tapia twice. Ramos battered his veteran opponent for the full 2:21 of the fight before a vicious left hook from "El Bazooka" but Tapia down for one final time. Ramos had older brother Jorge in the corner, and the pair seemed to work well together.
The undercard also featured former WBA super bantamweight title holder Oscar Escandon of Ibague, Colombia, who showed even at 38 years old, he still has the craft and skills to compete at the highest level. The former champ jabbed his way in and then unleashed powerful right hands from a variety of angels. He outworked and out-landed his opponent, Angel Tamez Colombian, beating his man up throughout a six-round affair. The Colombian scored with a thudding body shot late in the second that hurt his opponent badly. He stayed downstairs and dropped his man. Just moments later Escondon struck again with a left hook and right upper combo. The battering continued throughout the fourth and fifth and the only question left was could it go the distance able to go the distance. A determined Tamez survived to the final bell. However, the scorecards were academic as Escandon took a wide decision by scores 60-53 and 59-54x2.
McAllen Native, knockout artist, and fan favorite Javi Vargas suffered his first career loss and dropped to 2-1 (2) when he dropped a competitive decision to Damian Guajardo of Zapata. Guajardo was not intimated by the power and reputation of the McAllen native and pressured Vargas and took the fight to him in what was an all-action fan-favorite slugfest. The judges preferred the constant pressure and punch output of Guajardo over Vargas's more precise punching and counter shots as the judges scored in favor of the Zapata native 40-36x2.
In a rematch of September's all-out slugfest between Laredo native Nick Molina and Edinburg native Eduardo Guerra. The first bout ended in a controversial draw in which most spectators thought Molina rolled to a clear victory. In the rematch, Molina was jabbing and moving a bit more and was scoring with a stiff jab that kept Guerra at bay. However, as the fight progressed the Edinburg native was able to get on the inside and apply pressure that wore Molina down and land chopping right hands on the inside. It was another highly competitive fight the judges ruled in favor of Guerra's pressure as opposed to Molina's skills and jab. Two of the three judges scored for Guerra 39-37 with one scoring by the same tally in favor of Molina.
In a highly competitive and entertaining lightweight affair, Joshua Montoya of Lubbock outlasted "Hot Hands" Nelson Hampton to move his record to 4-3-2 as Hampton dropped to 9-6. After a career-best performance and capturing the Texas title Montoya celebrated with a backflip that he stuck perfectly. Montoya who is a natural 126-pounder took a big challenge in Hampton and did so at a sizeable weight disadvantage. The newly minted 135-pound Texas champ will likely not be spending much more time at the lightweight limit and will likely go back down to 126.
