Oscar Escandon knocks out Robinson Castellanos for interim featherweight title

Oscar Escandon successfully rebounded from a split decision loss to Moises Flores with a seventh-round knockout of spoiler extraordinaire Robinson Castellanos at the D.C. Armory last night. The Ring has a solid recap of the fight, which saw Escandon suffer a second-round knockdown before taking control.

With the win, Escandon earns the WBC Interim Featherweight Championship and positions himself for a crack at the winner of Gary Russell Jr.'s April 16th title defense against Patrick Hyland. He was originally set to face Russell in November before the latter suffered a cut in training.

Castellanos (23-12, 13 KO) entered the bout having beaten Ronny Rios and Rocky Juarez in consecutive bouts, but reportedly found little success against the bulldozing Escandon (25-2, 17 KO) after the aforementioned knockdown. The Colombian opened a cut on Castellanos in the fifth and ultimately put him down for the full count with a right uppercut two rounds later.

Escandon now finds himself amidst a vicious crop of fighters in the featherweight elite, but would be a rare challenge for Russell if the American dispatches Hyland and no tomfoolery occurs with the mandatory situation. In any case, this was a very solid win for the thirty-one-year-old.