All photos by Omar Martinez/RBRBoxing
At Iron Boy 19 in Phoenix, AZ, heavyweight WBO NABO belt holder Charles Martin pummeled outmatched Raphael Love into submission and walked away with a 10th-round TKO victory.
Martin improved his undefeated record to 19-0 with 18 knockouts, while Love dropped to 35-10 with 28 knockouts.
From the beginning, it was clear Love was outmatched by the bigger and stronger Martin. Although a competitive fight on paper, the fight was clearly one-sided and was slow-paced much to the dismay of the fans at the Celebrity Theater.
After the ninth round, Martin began to pull the trigger, finally putting the Brazilian, Love out of his misery.
In the co-main event, Victor Castro sent Ivan Zavala to the canvas by way of a body shot in the third round to win by TKO victory. Castro was the better boxer from the first bell, showcasing his skills against Zavala and consistently beating him to the punch.
With a stiff jab and good combination punching, Castro dropped Zavala with a thudding body shot that had Zavala on one knee gasping for air. Zavala would make it out of the second round, but things would get worse for him as Castro set up a great combination and finished with another body punch to finally drop Zavala for good.
Castro improved to a perfect 14-0, with 7 KOs while Zavala droped to 6-9.
Hopefully Castro, who is trained by boxing great, Israel Vasquez, will step up in opposition soon, God knows he is ready.
In other fights, Daniel Garcia won by unanimous decision against Stephan McCray in a good, hard-fought match.
Francisco De Vaca also won by unanimous decision, in a fight where his hubris was on full display, as he took too many shots while showboating.
Sadly, De Vaca could’ve made it a quick night, but didn’t. There were rumors of a hand injury, but that could not be confirmed by his camp afterwards.
In a slight upset, hometown favorite, Edgar Brito, lost by majority decision to New Mexico native Kesus Pacheco. It was a good back-and -forth firefight, but it was clear Brito was receiving the worst of the exchanges.
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