Castillo stops Popoca on Friday Night Fights

Former two-time lightweight titleholder Jose Luis Castillo stopped Ivan Popoca after eight rounds of a scheduled 10-round welterweight fight on the Glen Johnson-Andrew Fonfara fight Friday in Chicago.

Castillo (64-11-1, 55 knockouts) hurt Popoca (15-2-1, 10 KOs) in the first round and put him down in the second, both times with a left hook, and was never seriously threatened after that.

Popoca worked hard the entire fight in spite of nasty cuts above both eyes, which made his face a bloody mess, but did little damage.

Castillo, 38, has won two consecutive fights since he was outpointed by Jorge Paez Jr. in March of last year.