Casamayor Punishes Corrales for TKO Win

His throat filled with blood from a cut on his inner lip and another on the left side of his lip, his jaw possibly dislocated or broken and blood also trickling from a cut above his left eye, Diego Corrales was not allowed to continue into the seventh round of Saturday’s semi-main event against Joel Casamayor at the Mandalay Bay Events Center.

Ringside physician Margaret Goodman stopped the International Boxing Federation junior-lightweight title elimination bout with Corrales sitting on his stool, igniting a scene of wild celebration in Casamayor’s corner.

“He was bleeding profusely and hyperventilating,” Goodman said. “There is no way he could continue. It would have been highly dangerous. With that much blood in his mouth, he could have choked.”

Although the bout, scheduled for 12 rounds, went only half the distance, it featured more action than most fights that go the distance. There were three knockdowns, head butts and a penalty for holding.

Corrales (37-2, 31 knockouts) went down twice from Casamayor left hands, in the third round and in the fourth. Casamayor (30-1, 19) also went down in the fourth, on a short left hook by Corrales.

The lip cuts that ended the fight were caused by a Casamayor punch that split Corrales’ mouthpiece, the jagged pieces inflicting the damage.

The cut over Corrales’ eye, never a factor, was caused by a first-round head butt.

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In a preliminary match, World Boxing Organization bantamweight champion Cruz Carbajal (24-11-1, 20) defended his title with an eighth-round TKO over Gerardo Espinoza (27-5, 25).