By Rocky Morales at ringside
Photos: Sumio Yamada

WBA super featherweight champion Jezreel Corrales (22-1, 8KO) barely escaped with his world title in his first defense with a majority decision against tough Mexican Robinson Castellanos (22-12, 14KO) on Saturday night at the Forum in Los Angeles. Castellanos, coming off an upset victory over Yuriorkis Gamboa, twice floored Corrales in the third round. Corrales, to his credit, not only survived the knockdowns but fought back strongly and knocked down Castellanos in the seventh round with a straight left counter.

Castellanos fought the majority of the fight with a cut over his eye from an accidental head butt and at the start of the tenth round suffered a huge gash under his eye from yet another head butt. The ringside physician advised the referee to stop the bout – and with that, it went to the scorecards. Judges scored the bout 94-94 even, 94-93 for Corrales and, inexplicably, 96-92 for Corrales to give him the majority decision victory.

“I knew this would be an interesting fight, I am so happy about the victory,” Corrales said. “This is probably the best fight that I’ve had in my career so far. I’m looking at tonight’s main event as one of my future opponents.”

“I am honestly so sad,” Castellanos said. “That head butt should have disqualified him; it could have been fatal. I knew coming in that I was in enemy territory, however I felt that I was ahead in the cards. I feel terrible.”