By Mike Indri
Retired Boxers Foundation
June 6, 2003

Uncasville, CT. - "He caught me with a perfect shot" was all that local favorite Lawrence Clay-Bey, from nearby Hartford, CT., could say. Sitting dejectedly in a corner of his dressing room after suffering a surprise 9th round knockout at the hands of a much better conditioned Eliecer Castillo, Clay-Bey was devastated.

Burying his face in a blood-soaked towel, the captain of the 1996 U.S. Olympic Boxing Team realized his less than 100% effort had cost him dearly.

The Cuban born Castillo, now fighting out of Miami, FL., improved his record to 24-3-2 and is the new NABF Interim Heavyweight Champion. He will take on the winner of the June 24th bout between Joe Mesi and Robert Davis for the vacant NABF Championship.

Clay-Bey, now 18-2 (13 KO's), displayed superior hand speed and excellent boxing skills early in the fight. While winning the early rounds Clay-Bey never established control. Poor conditioning combined with his sluggish, non-motivated approach would lead to a disastrous result for this talented fighter who has never truly reached his potential in professional boxing. In the 4th round a Castillo left catches Clay-Bey as he is backing up and the shot sends Clay-Bey to the canvas. While the punch doesn't hurt Clay-Bey it bolsters Castillo's confidence and he's back in the fight.

While Castillo lands some good punches in the middle rounds it's obvious to most boxing fans in attendance: Clay-Bey is the more talented fighter and this fight is his to win - or lose.

Taking the 7th round off Clay-Bey again allows Castillo back into the fight. With blood streaming down his nose, from the numerous Castillo' left hands he's absorbed, Clay-Bey opens the 8th round with a flurry and sporadically fights through round nine with a desire and aggression which pleases trainers Al Mitchell and John "Ice" Scully.

At the 3:00 mark of round nine Castillo connects with a beautiful right hook which knocks Clay-Bey off his feet and sends him sprawling to the canvas. A queasy Clay-Bey valiantly attempts to get to his feet but is unable to beat referee Eddie Cotton's count of ten and shockingly has become Eliecer Castillo's 13th knockout victim.

Afterwards an overjoyed Castillo stated "I was timing him, I knew I would catch him." As for the new champs future Castillo added "No disrespect to him but I want to now fight better fighters."

On the undercard former 2-time IBF SuperFlyweight Champion Harold grey overcame a 2nd round knockdown, as well as a 1-point reduction (for low blows) in round four to win a hard fought unanimous decision against a tough Jose Quintana, who now falls to 11-3-2. Grey, fighting out of Caragena, Colombia improves his record to 25-3 (17 KO's).

Highly touted Jr. Lightweight Bernard Dunne, now 7-0 with 6 KO's, overwhelmed Terrell Hargrove from the opening bell with a vicious body assault which forced Hargrove, now 6-6, to take a knee less than a minute into the fight. Dunne, a native of Neilstown, Ireland now training under the tutelage of Freddie Roach at his world famous Wild Card Gym in Ca., continued hammering away at Hargrove. Referee John Callas seeing enough damage stopped the onslaught at 2:10 of the 1st round.

The remainder of this ESPN2 "Friday Night Fights" card which was promoted by Sugar Ray Leonard Boxing saw Heavyweight Jo-El Scott up his record to 20-1 (19KO's) with a solid 5th round TKO win against stubborn Maxine Onebo (15-17, 11 KO's). Jose Nieves remained undefeated (7-0-2, 6 KO's) with a unanimous 4 round decision victory over Carlos Diaz, now 8-4-2 in a spirited bantamweight bout. The walkout bout of the evening saw Jr. Middleweight Fontaine Cabell, now 21-3-1, pull out a 4 round majority decision win over Tom Wilt (10-2-1).

Overall another great night of boxing at the beautiful Mohegan Sun Arena.