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10/03/2006
New DiBella Entertainment signee Edgar Santana was given his first main event opportunity on Thursday at New York City's Manhattan Center and the junior welterweight handled the assignment well, stopping durable Francisco Campos after the seventh round. Campos, 20-6-1, was leveled by Santana in the seventh but showed heart by getting up and enthusiastically celebrating like he had just knocked Santana down. Campos finished the round, but his corner wouldn't let him out for the eighth. The good-looking Santana is now 17-2... Gary Stark had a career breakthrough, stopping 1996 Olympian Debind Thapa after five rounds. Stark, now 14-0, agreed to fight Thapa on short notice, no easy task given that Thapa is an awkward southpaw. Stark lost the first couple of rounds, but adjusted to Thapa's lefthanded, power punching stance like a veteran, and the junior lightweight bout quickly escalated into a war that Stark took control of. A glassy-eyed Thapa fell to 20-5-1 when his corner threw in the towel after the fifth round.... South African heavyweight champion Osborn Machimana made a very disappointing showing, losing to Livin Castillo over eight one-sided rounds. Machimana failed to capitalize on a 52-pound weight advantage (262-210), and he appeared slow and unaggressive. Castillo, now 14-4, floored him in the second and toyed with the much larger man by dropping his hands throughout the later rounds... Jerson Ravelo, who represented the Dominican Republic in the 2000 Olympics and put together some decent pro wins before injuries and management disputes took him off the boxing radar screen, returned from a year of inactivity with a sharp outing. Ravelo knocked down Raymond Darden, 9-13, three times in the first round and improved to 15-1... In two minor upsets, Carlos Vinan, 5-1, decisioned former Golden Gloves winner Washington Hago, 2-2, over four lightweight rounds and junior welterweight Eduardo Valdez, 3-2-2, stopped Atlantic City's Lorenzo Bethea, 5-2, by third-round technical knockout. - Scott Shaffer
