By Eric Thomas: WBO Lightweight champ, Michael Katsidis (23-1, 20 KO’s) came up short against ring veteran Joel Casamayor (36-3-1, 22 KO’s), who stopped him in the 10th round on Saturday night Morongo Casino in Cabazon California. Katisidis, 27, was knocked down three times in the bout, two of them coming in the first round alone. However, after losing the first three rounds, Katsidis seemed to settle down and used his power to control the fight in rounds four through nine, even knocking Casamayor down through the ring ropes in the 6th round.
Although Casamayor later said that Katsidis hadn’t hurt him in the round – even saying he doesn’t punch hard – Casamayor did, indeed, look hurt in the round and at other points in the fight. However, Katsidis, whom had been fighting under a more controlled pace after the third round, got over anxious in the 10th round and reverted to his wild style of attacking, in which he customarily charges in on his opponents thinking nothing of defense. This resulted in Casamayor landed a short left hand that Katsidis ran into, knocking him to the canvas. Upon getting up, Katsidis was met with a storm of punches, which he gamely tried to fight back against, but the referee jumped in and halted the bout with Katidis still standing against the ropes.
It wasn’t a premature stoppage in my opinion, but many people at ringside weren’t too pleased because it seemed as if Katsidis at least had a chance to last out the round, and perhaps recover in between rounds. It’s a matter of speculation whether he could have been able to avoid being knocked out in the 11th round or not. He certainly has been hurt in past fights against Czar Amonsot and Graham Earl, both of whom he came back in the next rounds showing no signs of his earlier problems. This time, however, the referee working the fight wasn’t going to give him the benefit of the doubt by letting him continue fighting.
Overall, Katisidis looked surprisingly good for a fighter whom has had very little experience against world class opponents. You must remember, though Katsidis has had 24 fights, only three of them have come against world class fighters. And, really, I only consider Casamayor to be true world class, no offense to Earl and Amonsot, who are decent B-class fighters but not true A-level. Knowing that, I think Katsidis did a respectable job for such a limited fight background. He clearly still has a lot of things to learn from this fight, and hopefully he’ll move on and avoid the same mistakes in his future fights.
He does, however, need to work more against the lower fights in the top 10 and build on these fights until he can have enough overall skills to challenge for a title. His offense already is excellent but he needs to work on using more finesse when making his attacks. His defense needs a lot of work, for which if I were him, I’d perhaps get another trainer, preferably someone that specializes in this kind of thing. Maybe Buddy McGirt would be a good choice. Whatever the case, he needs of work before he should even consider trying to challenge for another title.
Believe me, if it wasn’t Casamayor, it would have been another fighter that would have done the same thing to Katsidis, because he had way too many holes in his fame, the type that any good fighter – even an old one like Casamayor – could exploit. I don’t see Casamayor holding onto the title for long, because there’s better fighters than him out there who have more energy. Casamayor got lucky by fighting a fighter as green as Katsidis, for against a fighter with good skills, Casamayor wouldn’t be able to matchup because he doensn’t have the energy level to match up against the young talented fighters like Anthony Peter son or even an old one like Nate Campbell for that matter.