Halloween comes early!
'The Ghost' Pavlik bathes in blood, stops Zuniga for NABF title

Ringside report by Sean Wippert and Chris Cozzone
Photography by Chris Cozzone

This year, Halloween came early to the Aladdin when, last night, undaunted by a constant monstrous assault from a blood-spewing Fulgencio Zuniga and unhaunted by a first-round knockdown scare, Kelly “the Ghost” Pavlik showed Vegas the stuff of Youngstown, Ohio by winning the vacant NABF middleweight title.

By the roar of applause Pavlik received entering the ring, you would’ve either thought Pavlik was a local pug, or that the airlines were running Ohio-to-Vegas specials—and that paled to the cheers the ‘Ghost’ received after the end in Round Ten.

At first glance, the combined 13-inch height and reach advantage possessed by the ‘Ghost’ gave the appearance of an easy fight—but the scrappy Columbian would prove he was not going to be counted out and, from the opening bell, he attacked the only way he knew how, on the inside and heavily.

While Pavlik sought to establish control in Round One, Zuniga was determined to wrest it away. Jabs and measured rights from Pavlik gave him the appearance of command, but Zuniga stunned both, the crowd and Pavlik, when he landed a loopy double left hook that put Pavlik on the canvas.

Showing his mettle, Pavlik got up, brushed the dust off his trunks and waded back into battle, finishing the round with zeal.

Pavlik grew weary of the short range brawl Zuniga insisted on, and adjusted his game plan to utilize a long jab attack. He picked off shot after shot at a continuously charging Zuniga, who looked like a bull chasing a red cape.

Throwing punches from every conceivable, and inconceivable, angle Zuniga refused to stand at the end of Pavlik’s long reach. Eventually, Pavlik pocketed his plan and, to the ever-rising cheers of the blood-sated crowd, fought tooth, claw and nail, like Zuniga.

The action cycled, from box-and-pot-shot to collision-course-brawling, until a head butt opened up a wicked gash over Zuniga’s right eye. After the Ok from the ringside doc was attained, the fight resumed, ten-fold in intensity now with the spray and gush of blood, and the sight of two blood-bathed warriors bombing away under the lights.

Rounds Eight and Nine were brutal and bloody enough for Zuniga’s corner to say ‘no mas’ before the clang of the 10th round bell, giving the TKO win to Pavlik, who was ahead on the cards before the stoppage, 87-83 twice and 88-83.

Pavlik, still undefeated at 27-0, 24 KOs, becomes the new NABF Middleweight champion.

Castillo’s little bro revs up the house with Payne

While one Castillo was too heavy on the scales, earlier in the day, the lighter one, featherweight Ricardo Castillo, proved too big and strong for game Phillip Payne of St. Louis.

Castillo wasted no time testing Payne’s pain threshold or boxing abilities. From the opening bell, he went after the smaller foe with digging body shots and lefts to the head that had most thinking this wasn’t going to last too long—especially after a nasty double left hook within a barrage put Payne on the canvas.

Payne, however, hadn’t showed up to just collect a paycheck—he not only got up but obliged Castillo in a war of fists. Castillo sought to drop his foe (with a little more zeal than the elder Castillo had in trying to drop some pounds at the scale), but Payne was game. He returned fire and held Castillo off a bit. But Payne, with a swelling under his left eye, did not possess the firepower.

Between the 2nd and 5th, Payne had his moments, countering the aggressive Castillo with sneaky combinations, especially while pushed up against the ropes. But a consistent attack gave the Mexican control of the fight.

In the fifth round, Castillo landed a vicious left hand that stunned Payne against the ropes. By now, ref Tony Weeks had seen enough Castillo dole out enough punishment to Payne.

The match was called at the 2:10 mark and the TKO win awarded to Castillo, who moves to 26-2, 19 KOs.

Payne evens his record, at 16-16-1, 8 KOs.

Undercard action:

In the opening bout of the evening, Sergio De La Torre overcame Arturo Brambilla’s early-rounds sharp-shooting, turning the fight around midway through the 2nd by bobbing, ducking, weaving a defensive web while bombing Brambilla to the body to rack up the rounds.

While warned twice to keep the body bombs north, De La Torre kept up a harried pace for six; Brambilla matched the pace and work rate but could not do so with De La Torre’s power.

At the end of six, De La Torre, of Escondido, Calif. got the unanimous nod (60-54, 59-55, 59-54), upping his record to 10-6-1, 1 KO. Brambilla, of Phoenix, Ariz., drops a notch to 8-5, 4 KOs.

In a televised swing bout, Las Vegan Rodrigo Aranda took on Hector Leyva of Ciudad Obregon, Mexico.

Leyva came out swinging, and had no intention of stopping—especially after dropping Aranda in the first round with a well-timed left hook.

It was slugfest mode from there on—and the fight continued at a pace for the duration, Aranda trying to match the heavier-handed Leyva in the pocket but unable to do so.

When the scores were tallied, a unanimous count of 39-36 twice and 38-37 was reached in favor of Leyva, who sends his record to 6-3, 3 KOs. The loss drops Aranda to an even 7-7-2 2 KOs.

Following the main event and the signing-off of Telefutura, the momentum of the show plummeted to a yawning crawl, at least with two of the three walkout bouts.

In the first, Javier Lagos, Houston, Tex., took on undefeated southpaw Giovanni “The Aztec Warrior” Segura, of Los Angeles, Calif.

After a slow start, Segura landed a hard left that slowly created a mouse under the right eye of Lagos. Segura saw this and poured on the offense.

Unfortunately, Lagos wasn’t there to entertain the crowd by getting beat up, so he got on his bike and he pedaled . . . and he pedaled . . . and he pedaled.

Through six yawning rounds, he was chased by a determined Segura while the crowd was too bored to even boo.

But, finally, in the last round, Segura put us all out of misery with a haymaker uppercut that staggered Lagos. Referee Tony Weeks, perhaps as tired as everyone else, had seen enough and stopped the fight at the 2:32 mark of the sixth round.

The TKO win moves Segura’s record to 10-0-1, 8 KOs and Javier Lagos to 15-10-2, 4 KOs.

In the second sleeper, Denver’s Mike Alvarado had less to worry about Puerto Rican Jose Angel Ramon than he did with his blaringly-irritating corner, who shouted non-stop, paint-by-number instructions from opening bell to close.

Throw the right! Now the left! Take your time! Hurry up! Where’s my jab? Now the hook-no, the other hook!

Do this! Do that!

It was bad enough that Ramon was a slippery fighter, but Alvarado, unable to figure out on his own how to deal with the Puerto Rican, broke up his plan to continually stare looks toward his ceaselessly-imploring-demanding corner.

Still, basic offence by Alvarado, albeit less than optimal, won the rounds. Every round seemed to have Alvarado finding new methods of attacking Ramon (per his corner), and, overall, succeeding.

Ramon was not going to cooperate by fighting in the pocket; while he returned fired, he did so in sporadic flurries. The lack of consistent return fire combined with an aggressive attack given by Alvarado awarded him the win.

Alvarado’s record stays clean, at 10-0, 8 KOs. Ramon drops to 6-9-3 2 KOs.

In the final bout of the night, Las Vegas’ Dominic Chavez picked up on the vibes of the remaining crowd, cutting short his four-rounder against late sub Jeremiah Chapman early with a second round stoppage.

Chapman was a last minute replacement for Mexican Fernando Chacon. Late sub or no, Chavez was hell-bent on going home early.

In the first, while throwing and moving, he evaded his opponents’ punches well while countering with a deceptively quick right that gave Chapman an early count.

Chapman was able to evade another one of those deadly rights until the second stanza when Chavez, feinting a right to the body, instead landed on Chapman’s skull. Referee Tony Weeks stepped in to stop the bout at 1:16.

The destructive TKO improves Chavez to 5-0 2 KOs, and drops Chapman to 2-4, 1 KO.