Marc Castro tops George Acosta in Riyadh Season appetizer in L.A.

SANTA MONICA, California – Riyadh Season and Turki Alalshikh served up a free appetizer to Southern California fight fans on Wednesday night courtesy of a three-fight card that was open for the public to attend.

The Matchroom Boxing-promoted and Bash Boxing-produced show was staged at the iconic Santa Monica Pier, a locale that attracts nearly eight million visitors a year and was headlined by junior lightweight prospect Marc Castro’s clash against George Acosta.

Before the fights unfolded, Terence Crawford and Israil Madrimov, the headliners for Saturday night’s star-studded event at the BMO Stadium in Los Angeles, entertained the masses with a public workout, along with the rest of the fighters featured on the undercard.

Castro (13-0, 8 KOs) took advantage of his showcase opportunity, but he did so in an anti-climatic fashion, as the fight was stopped in the seventh round after an accidental clash of heads forced instant swelling above the right eye of Acosta (17-3, 3 KOs).

Referee Rudy Barragan called a stop to the action and had the injury inspected by the ringside physician, who deemed Acosta unfit to continue at the 1:10 mark of the seventh.

All three judges scored the contest 70-63 in favor of Castro. 

It took Castro and Acosta the first two rounds to warm up on the 65-degree evening, but by the third, it was all systems go on both sides. 

Castro, a 24-year-old prospect from Fresno, California, connected by stepping in and out with his fleet feet, and Acosta countered with the openings he could find. Castro closed the round with a left-right combo that caught the attention of Acosta.

Castro stepped up the pace in the fourth, landing several right hands, but none of them did serious damage to Acosta, a 27-year-old from Los Angeles who was coming off an April loss to Rene Tellez Giron. 

Acosta’s trainer, Manny Robles, pleaded with his fighter to respond by digging into the body, and Acosta obliged in the fifth. But with less than a minute remaining in the round, Castro countered with a blistering, unanswered combination in the corner that hurt his opponent.

In the sixth round, Castro started targeting the body of Acosta as well, and began slowing down his counterpart.

Acosta’s pace slowed even more in the seventh, but he never got to see the end of the fight after suffering the headbutt.

In the co-main event, Madrimov teammate and Uzbekistani countryman Shakhram Giyasov outmuscled and outlasted Miguel Parra to score a spirited 10-round split decision win.

Giyasov (16-0, 9 KOs), a 2016 Olympics silver medalist, survived a point deduction to beat the game Parra (22-5-1, 14 KOs) in the welterweight matchup.

Judges scored the fight 95-94 and 96-93 in favor of Giyasov, while a third had it 95-94 for Parra.

Parra landed his fair share of solid shots and was rewarded by judges for his pressure, as the close scorecards showed, but Giyasov did more than enough to be rightfully awarded the victory.

The 31-year-old “Wonder Boy” Giyasov switched the fight into second gear in the fourth round, plastering Parra by landing several solid left hooks.

In the fifth round, Giyasov started walking down Parra, who picked and popped off his back foot. In the closing seconds, Giyasov landed another right but was caught with a hard right in return.

The fight warmed up considerably in the sixth as Parra flipped the script and started going on the offensive. But Giyasov pressed on the gas and landed a hard right that stopped Parra in his tracks.

Parra’s chin was seemingly made of steel, and it was his body that momentarily failed him.

Controversy boiled over in the seventh as Giyasov landed a perfectly placed body shot above the belt line, but referee David Solivan ruled the punch a low blow and docked a point from Giyasov. Parra, a 30-year-old from Mexico, 

wasn’t knocked down, but he was clearly hurt. An angered Giyasov served a one-way onslaught against his wounded counterpart for the rest of the round.

Giyasov continued targeting Parra’s body in the eighth round but also opened a cut near Parra’s left eye, which he continued to target in the ninth.

Para closed the show strong in the 10th but didn’t do enough to steal the win.

Super middleweights Nathan Lugo (2-0, 2 KOs) and Ray Corona (4-2, 0 KOs) kicked off the card with a fight scheduled for four rounds, but it only lasted two as the decorated amateur Lugo laid a beating on the outmatched Corona.

Lugo, 20, crushed Corona in the first round with powerful combinations, quickly establishing himself as the superior slugger. The “Brickbuster” continued bashing and busting up Corona with blistering hands in the second, forcing referee Rudy Barragan to step in and stop the action at the 54-second mark to score the technical knockout.

Manouk Akopyan is a sports journalist, writer and broadcast reporter. He’s also a member of the Boxing Writers Association of America and the MMA Journalists Association. He can be reached on X (formerly Twitter), Instagram, LinkedIn and YouTube at @ManoukAkopyan, through email at manouk[dot]akopyan[at]gmail.com or via www.ManoukAkopyan.com.