It was a long two-year layoff for Jorge Castaneda who suffered through medical injuries that canceled one fight and then a global pandemic that kept him out of the ring for another year. He finally returned to the ring back in April and scored an upset decision victory over Otha Jones III in Miami, Florida on the undercard of Andrade-Williams. That set up what happened on Saturday night in London, England. A fight that Castaneda announced to his hometown fans in Laredo at Fight Fest 9/11.
Castaneda was matched with unbeaten British prospect Youseff Khamari in a 10 round affair at the 02 Arena for the WBC Super featherweight silver title. A win would propel the Laredo native to the world-class level and put his name in world title discussions, and a win is what the Texan delivered. After a fairly even first half of the fight, Castaneda jammed on the gas and went full steam ahead. Moving only forward he started to break his British foe down. Scoring with right hands and left hooks Khamari clearly started to slow down. The eighth round swung the momentum in the favor of the Gateway City native for good as a left hook staggered Khamari and sent him reeling backwards. Castaneda followed up and unleashed a barrage of power shots and nearly got his man out. A game Khamari survived the round and fought valiantly over the last six minutes. However, it wasn't enough as Castaneda had worn him down and continued the onslaught to capture the decision by scores of 96-94, 97-94 with the third judge somehow scoring it even at 95-95
Castaneda came back to Laredo as a hometown hero, he's come 180 degrees. From being stopped in his home city to a hero's welcome at Laredo, Laredo International Airport. The stakes are about to get higher for the Laredo, Native. The home of former world champion Gabriel and Orlando Canizales is now on the brink of being the home of yet another world champion. Jorge Castaneda is now the leader in the clubhouse to be the next Gateway City native to capture a world title, a young stable of talented Laredo based fighters is capturing the attention of the boxing world, in addition to Castaneda, Josh Juarez, Jaime Jasso, Nick Molina and a litany of other young upstarts are putting Laredo on the boxing map and have bright careers ahead of them. However, it's Castaneda who is on the face track to a world title. A fight between him and another one of Eddie Hearn’s young British prospects, Joe Cordina, is already being called for on both sides of the Atlantic. If that fight can't get made and Castaneda has lots of young 130-pound prospects in the US he would match up interestingly with including Gabe Flores Jr, Xavier Martinez, Albert Bell, and Lamont Roach are all out similar positions of their career and would make high level, fascinating scraps that could propel the inner into a world title fight.