By Bill Green

Last Friday night, Robert “Red Hot” Frankel outpointed Raul “El Chino” Carrillo in their 10-round main event at a sold out Jerry’s Sports Complex in Sheridan, CO.

Scores were 99-91 (twice) and 98-92 for Frankel, who won the vacant WBC/USNBC Super Lightweight title in the process.

The well promoted event – presented by Airtight Promotions - began with a nice representation for each fighter’s national anthem including a Mexican Mariachi band to represent Carrillo. Cheers of “Red Hot” and “Chino” from the electrified crowd filled the air as both fan bases sensed a win for their guy.

In the first round, Frankel was able to land a stiff jab and slip counter right hands from Carrillo to take the round. The second round Frankel displayed great ring generalship, landed well timed jabs and sneaky over hand rights.

The third saw Carrillo taking more chances and landing some effective body punches. Frankel fought the entire round ala rope a dope. The two fighters made good on their promise to engage in a war in a very close round.  Frankel began the fourth with blood dripping from his nose, an all too familiar scene throughout his career. However, Frankel established the jab yet again and escaped out of danger.

Frankel had Carrillo almost out on his feet in the fifth, only great conditioning allowed Carrillo to survive. Frankel landed a perfect over the top counter right hand to stun Carrillo. For the first time in the fight, Frankel was the aggressor and had Carrillo backing up.

The momentum carried over into the second half of the fight, though now with Frankel also contending with blood from a cut around his left eye. Another big right hand landed for Frankel but Carrillo took it much better.

Carrillo showed great recuperative skills and went back to the game plan of applying pressure, landing to the body, hoping to slow down the fast start by Frankel. However, his best moments only came in spurts, as Frankel had an answer every time his opponent tried something different.

Sensing he was far behind and in need of a knockout, Carrillo went for broke in the ninth but to no avail. The best he could manage was to wage war in the final round. To his credit, Frankel obliged for the sake of entertaining the crowd at a time where he could have easily coasted. Instead, he elected to give the fans their money’s worth, which was reflected in their chanting ‘Red Hot’ as the fight drew to a close.

While the fight was thrilling, scoring was academic as Frankel improves to 30-11 (7KO). Carrillo suffers his first pro loss as he drops to 9-1 (6KO).

After the fight, BoxingScene talked to both fighters. Frankel stated “I worked my tail off for this fight, all that hard work paid off as my conditioning was perfect. Raul was a tough fighter but nobody can stop me in my house."

Steve Mestas, who heads up Airtight Promotions, stated, “Now we are looking for big offers, we know that the top fighters are looking to fight Rob. Also, we know that Top Rank is looking for a big fight to land here in Denver. We will just sit back and wait because they know any fight in Colorado has to have this man involved in it. We have our eye on a certain fighter.”

Mestas, stated that he will hopefully have an announcement soon as to who the mystery fighter is but this reporter believes that fighter to be unbeaten 140 lb. contender Mike “303” Alvarado 34-0 (26KO), which would be a huge event for the Denver-Metro area.

Although Carrillo came up short on his promise to become champion, he fought a great fight. Carrillo fighting in only his 10th professional fight showed the fans that he clearly has a bright future in this sport. Carrillo applied his trademark pressure and scored well to the body of Frankel but was unable to land his power shots due to Frankel’s slick defense. 

In the loss, Carrillo's stock continues to go up especially with the Latino fans.

 “I did my best, he was the better man,” Carrillo said afterward. “He was hard to hit clean but I'm happy to gain the experience of being in there with a fighter like Frankel.”

Romo Utajara, manager and trainer of Carrillo, was proud of the performance delivered by his fighter and is confident that even in defeat he will only continue to improve.

“Rob fought a great fight, we didn't adjust the way we needed to but we will be back,” noted Utajara. “We are young and showed that we belong in there with the best."

As promised both fighters put on a great fight for the fans and had them begging for more.