MORONGO RESORT AND CASINO
By Armando Cabrera

In another beautiful sunny day in Southern California at Morongo Resort & Casino in Cabazon where they hosted Desert Storm on Saturday. All the fights were expectacular with several crowd pleaser bouts. The event was almost full to capacity and all boxing fans in attendance were the winners at Morongo Casino.

The veteran Joel Casamayor came out fighting, knocking out the young warrior Michael Katsidis twice in the first round. The Cuban Casamayor [36-3-1, 22 KO’s] proved he is still a dangerous fighter despite many boxing fans underestimating him.

The young Katsidis [23-1, 20 KO’s] of Australia didn’t lose his cool after being knocked-out so early in the round, he seem a little anxious afterwards and was looking for a knock out with his punches which turn out to be a slugfest with Casamayor. Katsidis came back in the sixth round knocking Casamayor out of the ring luckily the lower ropes held him in the ring, but dramatically Casamayor manage to step back into the ring to beat the referee 10-point count.

As each round went on the toe to toe brawl keep on getting better and better for hardcore boxing fans. Casamayor was deducted a point in the ninth round for a low blow and both fighters were warned for head butting.

The bruised Katsidis took all the punches of Casamayor and was counterpunching effectively until the ten round when Casamayor dropped Katsidis for good to take his WBO title.

Casamayor won by knock out in the ten round of a schedule 12 round to retain his WBC title adding the Ring Magazine and Katsidis WBO title belt to his collection.

The Co-Main Event between Librado Andrade and Robert Stieglitz was another thriller bout that resulted in a broken jaw for Stieglitz.

Andrade [27-1, 21 KO’s] of Mexico was all over the German Stieglitz [31-2, 19 KO’s] from the beginning until an uppercut by Andrade send Stieglitz head back to make his nose bleed in the second round.

Stieglitz came back in the third landing his own monster punches to stunned Andrade for a moment. Stieglitz kept trying to apply the pressure to keep up with Librado’s uppercuts that were landing at will. In the seventh Andrade was getting the upper hand and in the eight round Stieglitz was slowing down in returning punches that referee halt the bout.

Andrade wins an eight round TKO of a schedule 12-round IBF super middleweight eliminator.

This ten round bout in the junior lightweight was a one side fight for Edgar Vargas of Santa Ana, CA but the judges ruled in favor of the undefeated Australian Billy Dib.

Vargas [11-4, 1 KO’s] was busy chasing Dib [18-0, 9 KO’s] landing half of his punches while missing the other half as Dig moved in and out to avoid being hit as well as dancing but not actually fighting. Later in the rounds they both exchange punches; Dib seem to be hurt but recuperates quickly.

Every time Vargas corner Dib he was able to land his punches to the head along with body punches. Dib was able to get out of trouble just to keep on dancing around landing his limited jab and left hook punches.

Several warning by referee makes Dib to start boxing with Vargas to make some descend rounds after the half way point of the fight.

By the eight round Vargas had been taking control of most of the rounds found himself receiving several punches for Dib who fought more in that round than all the previous ones. Dib actually starting landing other punches like the uppercut, over right hand and even the 1-2-3 combination punches plus working the body.

Dib taunted Vargas in the last round and Dib raises his hand in victory after fight was over to have the crowd boo him and chanted for Vargas

The judges scored it [95-94] [94-95] [95-94] for Dib but the crowd didn’t agreed as they boo the decision. Dib remained undefeated by winning a split decision

In a six round featherweight bout Carlos Velazquez [7-0,6KO’s] of Puerto Rico settles for a decision against Manuel Sarabia [16-23-9, 9 KO’s] of Los Mochis,
Mexico. The judges scored it [60-54] [60-54] [59-55]

In a four round middleweight bout Daniel Jacobs [4-0, 4KO’s] easily disposed of Matt Palmer [2-2] by knocking him out twice in the first round.

The twin brother of Carlos, Juan Velazquez [7-0, 4 KO’s] gets by with a unanimous decision over Tomas Bernal [3-6, 2 KO’s] of Guerrero, Mexico in a six round featherweight bout. The three judges scored it [40-36] [40-36] [40-36] for Velazquez.

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