Jairo Castaneda VS Warren Stewart Produces Fast Paced 4-Round Action On FS1

FS1's Monday Night Fights aired San Antonio's massively rangy prospect Jairo Castaneda's third professional fight against Warren Stewart. Now, Stewart had weight issues, was coming off an almost exactly three-year layoff and was only a one-fight pro at that.  These are certainly things to keep in mind when assessing Castaneda's four-round unanimous decision victory. All of that said, Stewart was game and presented a nice early test of small man fighting on the lanky Castaneda. This was contested at the welterweight limit for Castaneda, as he was three pounds above the light welterweight limit, though I believe he's aiming to be a light welterweight prospect (built a lot like Amir Khan for the weight class) with Warren coming in with his weight trouble a bit above the welterweight limit, within the light middleweight limit at 148.5, if boxrec has it listed correctly.

Through rounds one and two Stewart's punches are clearly wide and slow. Castaneda landed almost at will through these rounds. Castaneda did not control Stewart from range, as you'd think would be the smart game plan but he still beat him thoroughly. The third round was extremely high in action, Stewart's openness is looking almost deliberate and he's as aggressive as a pit bull, but he still doesn't get the better of the round. Castaneda abandons a good, effective jab for the most part to get into a brawl. With a guy like Stewart, this is the kind of mistake a young, excited fighter tends to get into. Not surprising, but not good either, save for the audience's entertainment.

The final round saw Stewart again starting like gangbusters on Castaneda, as he did in the last, doing his best to be a fully fledged pressure fighter. I don't know if his chin is above average or if Castaneda just has very little stopping power. For certain, Jairo has a good offensive diversity and was throwing and landing every type of punch at Stewart throughout the match. Stewart still never seemed concerned about Castaneda's punching power, even while being tagged flush with his hands down, multiple times. After the strong start of Stewart, again, Castaneda comes back to batter Stewart throughout the majority of the round.

I'd like to see Castaneda commit to his jabbing more consistently, and straighten out his right hand for a more one-two oriented arsenal, with his height and reach. I scored the match 40-36, as did all three of the judges. But much credit to Stewart's tenacity. The punch stats had both men throwing 250+ punches over four rounds. Nice television match, this was. Castaneda's fight wasn't the smartest, to me, but he was unarguably dominant and fan-friendly against a very determined opponent. This was yet another good call for FS1's programming. I was very pleased with their card.


Work that bag,
Basement Gym Boxing