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Kendo Castaneda Tops ProBox Card, Sans Roy Jones and Tarver

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Kendo Castaneda Tops ProBox Card, Sans Roy Jones and Tarver

He is one of the most charismatic boxers practicing today, pound for pound. Yes, Kendo Castaneda is “quirky,” that’s hard to dispute, the 28 yearly San Antonio fighter sometimes refers to himself in third person as “The Tremendous Goon.”

Bless him, he’s not boring, or “interesting” in the way so many others are in trying to “establish their brand” or presenting themselves to the fight fan public. That’s outside the ring—inside, too, the 19-5 (9 KOs) hitter is just about always in fun fights. That means Kendo Castaneda isn’t a threat to stink it up tonight when he fights Antonio Moran (28-5-1; from Mexico) in the ProBox “Last Chance” tournament. It’s the final, and there’s $50,000 said to be up for grabs for the victor after ten or fewer rounds in Plant City, Florida.

“The ultimate tremendous transformation is finally here! Moran does not go the distance,” Kendo told me days before the scrap, his reward for being Sonny Fredrickson and then Joseph Fernandez in the opening and semifinal rounds. Moran, for the record, beat Jeffrey Torres and then Michael Dutchover to get to the finish line.

So, the question begged…What does the “transformation” consist of, again? Kendo Castaneda fleshed it out, and updated me on what he’s been up to since beating hard-man Fernandez in the semis. What’s the good, bad, and ugly, I asked.

Kendo Castaneda says his conditioning is A grade for his fight with Antonio Moran on Nov. 4, 2022.

“The good is that I’ve disciplined 100% and haven’t had a cheat meal for 8 weeks,” Kendo Castaneda said. “Pure supplements and clean food. The bad is the sprints I added in this camp. I did sprints twice a week! Very very tough to get through! It’s bad because it’s gonna make me that much badder for fight night. And the ugly is that I trained for 32 rounds a day of pure boxing. Old school style like Mayweather. As well as adding strength and conditioning twice a week. I’m ready ready!”

The card as of Friday afternoon

NOTE: The “Big 3” or “Big 4” really, of Mike Goldberg, Roy Jones, Antonio Tarver and Paul Malignaggi called the first two “Last Chance” cards, but not so tonight. Roy Jones Jr is no longer doing the ProBox thing, and, looks like, neither is Tarver.

Naw, I don’t know much more than that. Maybe there's a company re-boot of sorts coming? Because on the ProBox YouTube, as of Friday mid afternoon, seems like the last video was added five days.

Disclosure: I worked at ProBox from December 2021 to July 2022.

Founder/editor Michael Woods got addicted to boxing in 1990, when Buster Douglas shocked the world with his demolition of the then-impregnable Mike Tyson. The Brooklyn-based journalist has covered the sport since for ESPN The Magazine, ESPN.com, Bad Left Hook and RING. His journalism career started with NY Newsday in 1999. Michael Woods is also an accomplished blow by blow and color man, having done work for Top Rank, DiBella Entertainment, EPIX, and for Facebook Fightnight Live, since 2017.