A determined Mike Dallas Jr. shined brighter than the desert sun that was beating down on the ring set outdoors at Soboba Casino Friday night. In his fourth consecutive fight on ESPN “Friday Night Fights” Dallas locked leathers with Javier Castro and displayed blazingly fast hand-speed throughout the title fight, which marked Dallas’ first 12-round dance.
Photo Credit: Jan Sanders / Goossen Tutor Promotions
In round 6, Dallas caught his opponent with a heavy left and after seeing Castro stunned, unleashed a relentless assault forcing the referee to step in and stop the bout. Analyst Teddy Atlas was quick to comment on Dallas’ maturing as a fighter and pointing out how he was displaying great boxing prowess as he switched to the body and avoided Castro’s attempts to clinch.
The pride of Bakersfield, Dallas is trained by the 2011 Boxing Writer’s Association of Americas (BWAA) Trainer of the Year, Virgil Hunter and managed by the “First Lady of Boxing” Jackie Kallen. The “Silent Assassin” made plenty of noise on this night, becoming the WBO Latino Jr. Welterweight Champion and improving to 19-2-1, with 8 KO’s in the process.
Talented trainer Virgil Hunter (who also trains WBA/WBC Super Middleweight World Champion Andre Ward) went 2-0 on the evening when he also called the shots for Sacramento’s Brandon Gonzales in the co-main event for his impressive win over Elie Augustama (6-5, 3 KOs). Gonzales improved to 16-0, with 10 KO’s in his 8-round unanimous shutout victory.
Augustama re-opened a cut above the left eye of Gonzales that he had sustained during training and almost forced him to withdraw from the bout. Gonzales was able to avoid stitches, allowing him to continue training and ultimately outclass his opponent to remain unbeaten.
The event, which was promoted by Goossen Tutor Promotions, also featured another talented young star from Sacramento in Guy Robb, who improved to 8-1, 4 KOs after a knockout victory over Rodrigo Aranda at 2:22 of round 5.
Former Olympian Javier Molina engaged in an all-out brawl with Octavio Navarez and scored a TKO3 victory, improving to 11-1 with 5 knockouts.