By: Christopher Roche

Undefeated Dat “Dat Be Dat” Nguyen came out like a house of fire in Boston tonight, but his opponent, Castulo Gonzalez, refused to be stymied. The two featherweights, who were showcased on ESPN’s “Wednesday Night Fights”, fought an all-action war, over eight rounds.

Nguyen, a Vietnam native who fights out of Vero Beach, FL, opened the bout with a blistering body attack. Gonzalez, who is a stablemate of Nguyen’s at Cappiello Boxing, weathered the early storm and applied pressure of his own. In the second round, Nguyen, 24, began to mimic his trainer Buddy McGirt’s old moves, and he countered Gonzalez beautifully. Gonzalez, 29, of Lynn, MA, kept coming forward, and by the middle rounds he began to establish an accurate attack on Nguyen. Nguyen’s punch output hardly tailed off, and he proved he could take a good shot. Both men showed tremendous moxy, and Gonzalez left a lot of blood in the ring.

Gonzalez, who was cut in two places, was bloodied but not necessarily battered, and ESPN’s Teddy Atlas scored the fight as a one point victory for Nguyen. The judges disagreed with Atlas and gave the bout to Nguyen by a wider margin, 78-74 twice and 79-73.

Nguyen’s punch output was much higher than Gonzalez, but Gonzalez was more accurate. Gonzalez also took the bout on very short notice. After the bout, ESPN’s Joe Tessitore called for a rematch because the bout was so exciting. The decision drew a mixed reaction from the crowd, but they definitely got their money’s worth.

With the victory Nguyen improved to 11-0, 5 KO’s and Gonzalez fell to 9-3, 3 KO’s.