By Erik Schmidt: Undefeated light welterweight contender Ionut “Jo Jo” Dan Ion (23-0, 13 KOs) stopped Mexican Miguel Casillas (27-6-1, 18 KOs) in the 11th round on Friday night to capture the vacant World Boxing Council Continental Americas light welterweight title in Ploiesti, Romania. Dan, 27, dropped Casillas three times in the bout, with the final time coming in the 11th from three consecutive left hands to the head. Casillas got up off the canvas, staggering around and leading to referee Michael Griffin halting the bout.
Dan, ranked #9 in the WBA, #10 in the WBC and #14 in the IBF, dominated the fight from start to finish, knocking Casillas down twice in the 7th, in addition to the final knockdown in the 11th. However, Dan looked sloppy, weak and vulnerable on defense much of the time, and appears to have a lot of work still to go before he’s ready to step it up against class A competition.
Though he easily controlled Casillas, it was far from an impressive performance, as Dan looked tired by the 8th, and his technique seemed to go out the window as he tried desperately for a knockout. The problem here, though, is that Dan has very little power to speak of and was forced to throw a ton of punches to try and get Casillas out of there.
Dan, a southpaw, jabbed well in the opening round and nailing Casillas with straight left hands. It was immediately clear that Dan had next to no power, and was someone that would be forced to throw a lot of punches if he wanted to get Casillas out of there. Thi8s is exactly what Dan did, pouring in punches and leaving himself open much of the time. Thankfully for him, Casillas wasn’t taking advantage of Dan’s lack of defense and allowing him to throw punches without facing any return fire.
In rounds two and three, Dan continued landing a nice jab over and over, as he stalked Casillas around the ring, cornering him every once in awhile and hitting him with short flurries. During these times, Dan often missed most of his punches with just a few decent shots getting through. In the 4th, Dan knocked Casillas down with a perfect left hand to the groin. Casillas stayed down for awhile and then got up, not looking all that interested in fighting. In rounds five and six, the one-sided beating continued, with Dan now chasing Casillas around the ring and throwing hard punches to the body and head. The punches had no effect, but they made Casillas want to fight even less than he already was.
In the 7th round, Dan caught Casillas up against the ropes and unleashed a flurry of short, choppy shots that put Casillas down. He got up and the beating continued as Dan stalked him around the ring, landing right hands and uppercuts. A minute later, Dan put him down again with a hard right hand to the head. The round ended shortly after that, preventing Dan from adding to the knockdowns.
In rounds eight through ten, Dan worked Casillas over with left hands to the head, no longer worrying about throwing a jab as he waded in. It seemed as if Dan was going left hand crazy, putting a lot of focus on that one punch alone as he tried hard to finish Casillas. By this time, the fight perhaps should have been stopped by the referee because Casillas was no longer throwing punches and was just taking shots and fleeing from one side of the ring to the other, trying to escape from Dan.
In the 11th round, Dan jabbed Casillas often in the opening minute of the round, and then started unloading on him with heavy (heavy for him) right hands. Casillas, once again, retreated to the ropes and tried to cover up. This time, however, Dan moved in fast and landed three big left hands, with a left uppercut doing the most damage, and putting Casillas down for the third and final time in the bout. Referee Michael Griffin then stepped in and halted the one-sided bout.
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