Vancouver boxer Virgil Green wins by TKO in fifth round

Virgil Green’s patience was rewarded on Friday.

Though his bout wasn’t televised as hoped, the Vancouver boxer improved his professional record to 8-2 with a fifth-round technical knockout win over Guillermo Delgadillo in a junior welterweight bout at Little Creek Casino in Shelton.

“I feel like it was a step up from my last fight,” Green said.

After starting to assert himself in the fourth round, Green finished the fight in the fifth with a flurry of quick punches that Delgadillo did not respond to, which convinced the referee to stop the fight between 139-pound boxers.

The match was scheduled for six rounds.

Delgadillo, 35, is from Walla Walla. His professional record fell to 4-6-1.

Green, 25, said his plan was to wear down the older Delgadillo. Green pointed to a training camp that featured plenty of conditioning work as key.

“I knew if I could fight him at my pace throughout the fight that I would wear him down,” Green said.

Green said he spent the early rounds delivering jabs to soften up Delgadillo, and that strategy paid off.

In the main event of the ESPN show, light heavyweight prospect Thomas Williams (16-0, 11 knockouts) beat Cornelius White by TKO in a fight that didn’t get beyond a wild first round.

Green’s fight turned out to be the last of 10 bouts on Friday’s card. Three of the fights were shown live on ESPN2. Green hoped his fight might make the Friday Night Fights broadcast. He said waiting to fight at the end of the card was difficult.

“Oh man, it was really tough,” Green said.

Leonard Gabriel, who coaches Green at Fisticuffs Gym in Vancouver, described the fight as a great battle that Green was winning throughout.

Gabriel said Green’s next fight could come in two months.