Brian Castaño seeks to defend his title and continue growing

With short but firm steps, Brian Castaño seeks to build a solid career that, at 28 years old, already finds him as the super welterweight champion of the World Boxing Association. The boxer from Isidro Casanova will try to defend his crown for the second time this Saturday when he faces Frenchman Cedric Vitu in Boulogne-Billancourt, a town located on the outskirts of Paris. It will start after 6 pm and will be broadcasted by Fox Sports.

"I'm in great shape, well-gloved, well-trained. I have confidence in the work we have done, but Vitu is a great opponent who has experience and deserves respect," said Castaño, who easily passed the weigh-in on Friday (he registered 67.300 kilos and the weight limit for the category is 69.853).

At 28 years old, "Boxi," who has been training in the United States for two months for this fight, knows he is still in a period of full growth. Therefore, well advised by his promoter, Sebastián Contursi, he seeks to gain experience before attempting the leap to the big leagues of world boxing. The choice of Saturday's opponent seems to be in line with that logic.

Left-handed, with good mobility and decent technique, although without much power in his punches, Vitu, who weighed in at 68 kilos on Friday, appears as a dangerous opponent, although he is far from the top level. With 46 wins in 48 professional fights (19 by knockout), the Frenchman, ranked 12th in the WBA, is the European super welterweight champion. In his last fight, he won by technical knockout against Italian Marcello Matano.

This Saturday will be Castaño's second appearance on French soil. He has a record of 14 wins in as many fights (10 of them before the limit). The first one, on July 1st of last year in Evian, was a suspense movie with a happy ending: he defeated Ivorian Michel Soro by points in a split decision in a fight that he had clearly dominated. This way, he successfully defended the title he had won in November 2016 against Puerto Rican Emmanuel de Jesús in González Catán.

Although the boxer from La Matanza is the regular super welterweight champion of the WBA, the organization based in Panama, very fond of multiplying titles, recognizes Cuban Erislandy Lara as the super champion of the category, a man accustomed to fighting in top-level events in the United States.

The Caribbean fighter is scheduled to have a unification fight against American Jarrett Hurd, the International Boxing Federation champion, on April 7th in Las Vegas. Castaño aims to face the winner of that fight. However, he first needs to overcome the barrier of this Saturday against Vitu.