Brooklyn’s own Bruce Carrington showed championship composure Saturday night, weathering early adversity before scoring a ninth-round knockout of Carlos Castro on The Ring 6 undercard at Madison Square Garden.
After being rocked in the fourth round, Carrington turned the tide late, dropping Castro with a crushing right hand before unleashing a right-left-right combination that flattened him with 1:42 remaining in the ninth. Castro was unable to beat the count, prompting referee Charlie Fitch to wave it off at 1:29.
“I told you he’s a dangerous guy,” Carrington said afterward to Chris Mannix on DAZN. “He hit me kind of on the back of the head a little bit, but he got me on a shot that kinda buzzed me. And he was tough… It was a tough fight. But I knew I was gonna finish strong as the Brownsville champion that I am today.”
The stoppage marked just the second knockout loss of Castro’s 13-year, 35-fight professional career.
Champion’s Adjustment Pays Off
Carrington (17-0, 10 KOs) officially captured the WBC featherweight title, a belt vacated by Stephen Fulton ahead of his December 6 bout with O’Shaquie Foster. The unbeaten Brooklyn native previously claimed the WBC interim 126-pound crown with a unanimous decision over Namibia’s Mateus Heita on July 26. Castro (31-4, 14 KOs), fighting out of Phoenix, was returning from a 16-month layoff following a split-decision loss to Fulton in September 2024.
The fight’s pivotal moment came late in the eighth round. Just past the halfway mark. Carrington countered Castro’s right hand with a sharp right of his own, then unloaded a sustained barrage of punches to the head and body roughly a minute later signaling the momentum shift that would soon end the fight.
Carrington’s sharper defense and cleaner counters in the sixth and seventh rounds helped him regain control after a tense fourth, when Castro stunned him with a right hand to the top of the head. Although Castro pressed the advantage, he failed to land a decisive follow-up.
“It was my first time being buzzed,” Carrington admitted.
“I’ve had that effect in sparring before, and I know how to work through it. So when I got caught, I just had to stay focused and calm and get back to boxing.”
A Star-Making Night
By the time Castro fell flat on his back in the ninth, Carrington had erased any doubt. On a big stage, in front of a New York crowd. He proved he could recover, adjust, and finish all the hallmarks of a future star at featherweight. If this was Bruce Carrington’s arrival moment, the rest of the division has officially been put on notice.
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Robert LaMar is a writer for Dice City Sports. You can follow him on X via @RobertLaMar26
