Every fighter dreams of winning a world championship belt. Mike Dallas Jr. and Javier Castro will take a step closer to realizing that dream on June 22 when they battle it out in a WBO Latino Junior Welterweight Championship fight televised on ESPN’s “Friday Night Fights” at the Soboba Casino in San Jacinto, CA.
The #4 WBO world rated jr. welterweight and Latino Champion, Castro (27-4, 22 KOs), traveled to Florida June 24, 2011 to take on local favorite and top ten-rated Jesus Pabon. Castro stunned the junior welterweight contender with a second round knockout to win the Championship.
In October 2011, Castro again traveled to Puerto Rico to take on another local contender in Javier Monserrate, dropping the Puerto Rican favorite twice before stopping him in sixth round in his first defense of his newly won WBO Latino title.
Castro, who lives in Ciudad Juarez, Mexico, earned his third consecutive victory April 28, 2012 against veteran Carlos Urias, when he stopped him in the 2nd round.
“Another hometown favorite will go down on June 22. Dallas will not be able to withstand my knockout power,” said a confident Castro.
With Castro’s #4 rating at stake against Dallas, and Timothy Bradley, the WBO Jr. welterweight champion moving up in weight when he faces Manny Pacquiao June 9, puts the winner of Castro-Dallas in line for a possible shot at the World Championship.
Dallas Jr. (18-2-1, 7 KOs) shined recently in the headline spot on an ESPN “Friday Night Fights” card when he faced Miguel Gonzalez on February 17, 2012. The fight was the first ever boxing event held at the University of Texas at Arlington’s brand new College Park Center, which gave the Texas fans and an ESPN audience a glimpse of the new and improved Mike Dallas under new trainer Virgil Hunter, the Boxing Writers Athletic Association 2011 “Trainer of the Year” and the longtime trainer of Andre Ward.
Despite a cut above his left eye that was opened up by an accidental clash of heads in the opening rounds, Dallas displayed great foot and hand speed and landed several quick one-two combos on his way to a unanimous decision victory with scorecards.
“I feel a lot smarter and aware of what needs to be done as the fight progresses since being with the “Zen Master” Hunter, Dallas said. I believe with this confidence, things are going to keep getting better. Castro has power, but its nothing new to me, I’ll be ready to show some pop too.”
In addition to his promoter, Dan Goossen, Dallas is managed by the “First Lady of Boxing,” Jackie Kallen, one of the most successful managers in the sport whose life was portrayed in the movie “Against the Ropes” by Meg Ryan.
Hunter, who is coming off of an extremely successful year with his roster of fighters, which is headlined by the WBA and WBC Super Middleweight World Champion and the Boxing Writers Athletic Association 2011 “Fighter of the Year” Ward, will also be in the corner with another one of his prospects, Brandon Gonzales.
Gonzales returns to the ring for the first time since outpointing Ossie Duran (26-9-2, 10 KOs) at Bally’s in Atlantic City on October 28th of last year. A hamstring injury in his preparation for a bout in January of this year sidelined the undefeated Gonzales (15-0-1, 10 KOs) until it had fully healed.
“I’m very excited to get back in the ring,” said an eager Gonzales. “The time away has built up a hunger inside of me. At this point we’re completely past the injury, it was a sprain in my hamstring. I tried to train on it, but as soon as it started to mess with my boxing, we knew there was nothing I could do. I stayed off of it for four or five weeks and rehabbed it properly. It was unfortunate that it happened when it did, but it was a good thing that its given me more time to mesh with Virgil and continue working and improving on everything, so I’m definitely expecting to put forth a good performance this time out.”
“ESPN has become known as the network featuring fighters one-step away from stardom, and both of these bouts place the winner closer to the big money fights,” said promoter Dan Goossen.
“The Tribe is pleased to bring this exciting world-class event to our local community, and to sports fans worldwide via an internationally televised audience,” said Mike Hiles, Tribal Information Officer for the Soboba Band of Luiseño Indians.
The championship bout headlines a card also featuring hot California prospect, and undefeated middleweight, Brandon Gonzales. The event is being promoted by Goossen Tutor Promotions in association with Soboba Casino. The Castro-Dallas bout is being promoted in association with Promociones Del Pueblo.
Tickets priced at $30, $25, $20 & $10 go on sale Friday, June 1 and can be purchased at the Soboba box office or by calling the hotline at (866) 476-2622. Tickets are also available by calling Ticketmaster at (800) 745- 3000 or online at ticketmaster.com. Doors open at 5:00 and the event will air live on ESPN 2, ESPN 3 and ESPN Deportes at 6:00 p.m. PT.
