Brooklyn’s Carrington recovered from being hurt in the fourth round and stopped Carlos Castro in the ninth round of their featherweight title fight on “The Ring 6” undercard at Madison Square Garden. Carrington hurt him with a right hand and quickly followed up with a right-left-right combination that knocked Castro flat on his back with 1:42 left.

“I told you he’s a dangerous guy,” Carrington told DAZN’s Chris Mannix about his potentially star-making performance. “He hit me kind of on the back of the head a little bit. But he got me on a shot that kinda buzzed me. And he was tough ... It was a tough fight. I expected it to be a tough fight, but I knew I was gonna finish strong as the Brownsville champion that I am today.”

Castro couldn’t beat referee Charlie Fitch’s count and lost by knockout for the second time in his 13-year, 35-fight pro career. The official time of the stoppage was 1:29 of the ninth.

Carrington (17-0, 10 KOs) won the WBC 126-pound title that Stephen Fulton gave up leading into a fight with O’Shaquie Foster on December 6. Carrington won the WBC interim featherweight crown in his last fight with a unanimous decision against Namibia’s Mateus Heita (15-1, 10 KOs) on July 26.

Phoenix’s Castro (31-4, 14 KOs) ended a 16-month layoff. He lost a split decision to Philadelphia’s Fulton (23-2, 8 KOs) in his prior appearance September 2024.

Before he finished Castro, Carrington countered his right with a hard right of his own just after the halfway point of the eighth round. Carrington unloaded an array of rights and lefts to Castro’s head and body about a minute later.

A sharper Carrington landed right hands on Castro in the sixth and seventh rounds. He also defended himself better.

Carrington and Castro connected with right hands in an exchange approximately 55 seconds into the fifth round. The former reset his feet after absorbing that punch, but he didn’t appear to be hurt.

In the fourth, Castro rocked Carrington with a right hand to the top of his head a few seconds after the midway mark. Castro attacked when he realized he stunned Carrington, but he couldn’t connect with a flush shot needed to worsen his condition.

“It was my first time being buzzed,” Carrington said. “I’ve had that effect in sparring before, and I know how to work through it. So, when I got caught, I just had to stay focused and calm and get back to boxing.”