Hernandez Chops Down
Corley
With Devastating 5th Round KO;
Unbeaten Contreras Stops
Castaneda In First
Friday, Feb. 5, 2010, Live on SHOWTIME
Chumash Casino Resort, Santa
Ynez, California
Photos: M.L. Preissel - SHOWTIME
With one sudden,
dramatic right hand, once-beaten
Freddy “El Riel’’ Hernandez (28-1, 19 KOs) of
Lynwood, Calif. broke open an entertaining,
dead-even fight to brutally knock out former world
champion DeMarcus “Chop Chop’’ Corley
(36-13-1, 21 KOs) of Washington, D.C., at 1:48 of
the fifth round Friday in the main event on
ShoBox: The New Generation on SHOWTIME®.
In
the co-feature at Chumash Casino Resort in Santa
Ynez, Calif., power-punching, undefeated Dominican
Francisco Contreras (13-0, 12 KOs), of
Livingston, N.J., registered a 1:38, first-round
knockout over Juan Castaneda, Jr. (16-3, 12
KOs), of La Paz, Mexico, in a scheduled eight-round
junior welterweight bout.
The
three judges had the Hernandez-Corley scheduled
10-round welterweight scrap scored 38-apiece
entering the fifth round.
A
former World Boxing Organization (WBO) junior welter
belt-holder, Corley vowed going in to take the fight
to Hernandez and he did. He cut the No. 14-ranked
contender in the World Boxing Council (WBC) around
both eyes and his experience created a lot of
problems for the native of Mexico City.
But
no matter how slick, smart and slippery Corley was
at times, he had no answer for the booming right
hand that dropped him flat on his back. The victory
was the fifth in a row for the 5-foot-10-inch,
30-year-old Hernandez, who is 11-0 with one No
Contest dating to February 2005.
“My
corner kept telling me to throw the right hand more
and pick up the pace,’’ said Hernandez, who came out
for the fifth with renewed intensity. “We’d seen
tapes and saw where Corley slowed down a little
after three or four rounds.
“His
experience gave me lots of difficulties. That and
the fact he was a southpaw and that we only had a
week’s notice to prepare. I fought a southpaw before
(Damian Frias on Oct. 23, 2009, on ShoBox)
but I had a month to prepare for that. I cut in all
my fights so I wasn’t concerned about them.
“This is definitely my biggest victory. To knock out
an experienced former champion who never gets
knocked out is great.’’
For
the 5-foot-7, 35-year-old Corley, a longtime
world-class 140-pound southpaw who has fought many
past and current world champions, including Floyd
Mayweather, Miguel Cotto, Devon
Alexander, Junior Witter, Zab Judah,
Randall Bailey and
Jose Alfaro,
it was only the third time he’s been stopped in a
near-14-year career.
“I got caught,
simple as that,’’ Corley said. “It happens to the
best. Instead of me going bing, bing, bing (punches)
and moving out of range, I went bing, bing, bing and
stood up and got caught with a clean shot. Until
then, I was frustrating him and fighting my fight.
“But I’m not going
anywhere. As soon as I can return to the gym, I
will. I’m definitely going to fight again.’’
The
first round between Contreras and Castaneda was
shaping up as an excellent one until Contreras
connected cleanly with a right hand, two lefts and
another right coming off the ropes. Castaneda
suffered a severely twisted left ankle after getting
nailed and going down, and was counted out.
“I
am happy to get this win.’’ the 5-foot-10-inch,
25-year-old Contreras said. “All the shots I was
hitting him with were solid. It’s too bad for him he
couldn’t continue, but if he had gotten back up, I
would have knocked him down again.’’
Castaneda said he felt he twisted his ankle just
before he got hit and again after he hit the canvas.
“This is really a tough way to lose. I hope he’ll
give me a rematch,’’ the 5-foot-7, 26-year-old’
Castaneda said. He got me with a great shot and I
wanted to get up and keep fighting. But I just
couldn’t.’’
A doubleheader
promoted by Gary Shaw Productions, LLC,
will re-air this week as follows:
DAY
CHANNEL
Tuesday, Feb. 9,
at 10 p.m. ET/PT SHO 2
Friday’s fights will be available ON DEMAND
beginning on Monday, Feb. 8.
