Castillo's Lucky Draw--
Stevie Johnston regains title . . . and loses it again

photos & report by chris cozzone

It was a helluva lot better fight than the first one . And Stevie Johnston was able to get his belt back. Well, for a good ten, fifteen minutes, anyway.

Nothing like doing a bunch of post-fight interviews and going backstage to begin the celebration when you hear that knock on the door. Who is it? Uh, the Commission. Yeah, what? Well, uh . . . well, you see, uhhh . . . that pretty green belt you got strapped around your waist? We . . . uh, need that back . . . .

If there had been a point taken away for all the holding Jose Luis Castillo had been doing, the point wouldn't have mattered. 

If there had been a point taken away for throwin' elbows and his head into Stevie's puffing-up face, the point wouldn't have mattered. If there had been a different referee, I guess. 

Too many if's.

The fight was that close. Stevie Johnston was hungry; Jose Luis wasn't giving. Johnston boxed; Castillo held. Castillo landed shots that hurt Stevie; Stevie landed shots that accumulated points. Castillo never appeared hurt; Stevie did. Stevie wilted in the last few rounds; Jose hit his second wind. Give and take. The fight and the belt.

Still, it was the best action ESPN2 had seen in a few weeks. A rematch should warrant a step-up to Showtime or HBO.

And it still wasn't the best fight of the night. That honor belongs to Terrance Churchwell and Antonio Ramirez. What was, no doubt, supposed to be a warm-up tune-up for the undefeated Terrance Churchwell, wasn't. It certainly appeared to be that way through most of Round One, until Ramirez, who wasn't doing too much of anything, decided to step up to the plate and bat Churchwell to the canvas, which he did. Staggering, Churchwell got up and the battle continued. 

Back and forth these guys smacked each other around, Ramirez getting the best of it. In Round 2, Churchwell received a standing 8-count.In Round Three, it was obvious that Churchwell was in big trouble. Ramirez was pounding away at Churchwell, who wasn't doing too much of answering back. "Stop the fight!" was heard here and there . . . and then Churchwell went down again. Should've been for good but the ref saw it in his heart to let Terrance get back up to straighten his spaghetti legs.

The fight continued . . . but not for long. With just three seconds left in the 3rd round, the ref wised up and stopped the fight. 

Butterbean.

'Nuff said. Another opponent came and went. End of story.

The Adan Casillas-Juan Valenzuela fight was another good one (no, I'm not including count the Butterbean fight.) It looked like Casillas fight in Round One . . . and in Round 2, when Valenzuela got cut under the left eye. The doc let the fight continue, and good thing, too, for Valenzuela. Maybe his drive got a good kick in the pants by the fear of having a stopped fight, but this guy went at Casillas, knocking him down in Round 2. after a round and a half of trading punches, Valenzuela knocked Casillas down again--this time out of the ring, falling into the lap of the judge on my immediate left. There were no more knockdowns, but the decision was overwhelmingly in favor of Valenzuela.

Okay, back to Butterbean. Someone give this guy a 300-plus pound guy to fight. Or a decent boxer. Sure, Marcus Rhode got in a few good shots at Butterbean's no-neck head, but the fight was a typical Butterbean fight. 

The Martin Lopez vs Shane Swartz undercard fight was the first bout of the evening, shortly before ESPN2 went on the air. Lopez was hopelessly outclassed as Swartz let loose on him, TKOing him in Round 2. Swartz's record climbs to an undefeated 11-0 with 7 KO's. 

The first fight after the main event was another mismatch. Kelly "Ghost" Pavlik KO'd Frank Sanchez at 1:35 of Round One. Pavlik is 3-0; it was Sanchez' pro debut.

The final fight of the evening, largely ignored, I admit, since I had to keep running back to the post-fight press conference to snag some quotes from Stevie Johnston and Jose Luis Castillo ended in a unanimous decision for Arturo Medina. Medina scores his first win (1-2) and Almanza slips to 1-4.