LOS ANGELES — Alan Castano battered and bruised Christian Aguirre as if he were a human heavy bag for three straight rounds and scored a definitive knockout at 53 seconds of round three. 

Referee Edward Collantes had seen enough of Castaño's one-sided crushing and stepped in to save Aguirre (8-8, 4 KOs) from himself as he was rattled yet still standing on his feet for a middleweight bout that was scheduled to go six rounds. 

Castaño somewhat felt sorry for the beating, immediately consoling Aguirre after the fight was stopped. After the final result was read, Castaño again hugged his fallen foe.

The tough and rugged Aguirre was seemingly game for the beating, however, as he was never knocked down while eating every kind of punch imaginable for nearly seven minutes. 

The Argentinian Alan is the younger brother of WBO middleweight champion Brian Castaño.

The fight took place Saturday night at the Dignity Health Sports Park in Carson, California. The non-televised bout took place on the Showtime card headlined by WBO bantamweight champion John Riel Casimero and challenger Guillermo Rigondeaux.

Manouk Akopyan is a sports journalist, writer and broadcast reporter. He’s also a member of the Boxing Writers Association of America and MMA Journalists Association. He can be reached on Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn and YouTube at @ManoukAkopyan, via email at manouk[dot]akopyan[at]gmail.com or on www.ManoukAkopyan.com