Carrington stopped Carlos Castro in the ninth round on the undercard of Teofimo Lopez vs. Shakur Stevenson in New York. Before the break, 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 anything like that,” Carrington told Ring Champs. “But my back leg went. I was like, ‘Oh.’ My leg is gone.”
The feeling didn’t go away between rounds. He said the instability continued and that he spent the next round regaining control while showing Castro he wasn’t in trouble.
“I was still a little shaky,” he said. “Even in the next lap, my legs still felt a little weird.”
Castro entered the bout following a loss to Stephen Fulton in September 2024 and a 16-month layoff. With an empty belt on the line, he had every reason to push as soon as he sensed weakness.
Carrington chose to change positioning rather than give ground. He said Castro’s power was most dangerous at distance, especially with the straight right hand, so he stepped inside, shortened the space and went to work where he felt more steady and could dictate the exchanges.
“My inner 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 break and the title. He never believed he was behind.
“If I was going to lose, I had to be knocked out,” Carrington said.
The belt now sits with Carrington. The rounds where his legs failed him showed how he handles a fight when things don’t go according to plan, and that may say more about his ceiling than the finish itself.
