Carrington stopped Carlos Castro in the ninth round on the undercard of Teofimo Lopez vs. Shakur Stevenson in New York. Before the stoppage, he had to steady himself through a moment he admitted he had never experienced as a professional. Carrington was clipped on the side of the head and immediately felt his back leg give out.
“I wasn’t dizzy or nothing like that,” Carrington said to Ring Champs. “But my back leg went gone. I was like, ‘Oh.’ My leg is gone.”
The feeling did not disappear between rounds. He said the instability lingered and that he spent the next round trying to regain control while showing Castro he was not in trouble.
“I was still a little shaky,” he said. “Even in the next round, my legs still felt a little weird.”
Castro entered the bout coming off a loss to Stephen Fulton in September 2024 and a 16-month layoff. With a vacant belt at stake, he had every reason to press once he sensed weakness.
Carrington chose to change positioning rather than give ground. He said Castro’s power was most dangerous at range, especially with the straight right hand, so he stepped inside, shortened the space, and went to work where he felt steadier and could dictate the exchanges.
“My inside game, that’s where I live,” Carrington said.
As the rounds progressed, Carrington saw Castro’s output drop and his reactions slow. By the ninth, he found the opening that produced the stoppage and the title. He never believed he was behind.
“If I was to lose, I had to get knocked out,” Carrington said.
The belt now sits with Carrington. The rounds where his legs failed him showed how he handles a fight when everything does not go to plan, and that may tell more about his ceiling than the finish itself.
