08.05.05 – By Wray Edwards: There were some interesting moments when Chico Corrales fought Acelino Freitas for the WBO Lightweight Championship back in August. Diego, working under the watchful eye of Joe Goosen, elected to go toe-to-toe with Acelino whenever Freitas wanted it that way. Gone were the long-range boxer-on-boxer set pieces he practiced with Casamayor and others. Instead, Corrales stepped in close, tightened his punch arcs and bested Freitas at his own game. Few suspected that Diego was prepared to demonstrate a quantum leap into a mugging brawl with an even more intimate menace in the person of Jose Louis Castillo.
As Joel Casamayor learned, by urinating blood for a week, if you dance cheek-to-cheek with “El Terrible” you are in for some serious punishment. Even though Corrales did fairly well at boxing range, with some effective connects, he decided to enter the torture chamber which lies inside arms length in front of Jose Castillo. Steeled by an unusually long and intense training camp meant to fortify Diego for the challenge, and to correct for any rusty drift which might have occurred since August, Chico appeared to have also picked up another “talent”.. That would be the somewhat reckless inclination, best demonstrated by Ricardo Mayorga, to lean into a barrage of punches and tempt fate while lurking for a clean finisher.
Since Louis Castillo is also no stranger to this Mayorgaesque proclivity, the stage was set for a raging blood-bath. ROUND ONE was very easy for both fighters as they got acquainted: 9/9. Neither guy showed much spunk. Castillo, a slow starter, and Corrales, seemingly waiting for something to happen, were both kinda iffy.
ROUND TWO included hints that Chico was prepared to be more intimately aggressive than expected. The famous jab was eschewed in favor of left hooks and kind-for-kind body blows which are “El Terrible’s” stock-and-trade. Castillo’s fondness for kidney punches were favors returned by Diego, with a few rabbit punches thrown in for good measure. Toward the end of the round Corrales backed Castillo up with withering combos and a few low blows: 10/9 Diego (19/18).
ROUND THREE was Jose’s frame to reach full song in his style and energy output. Though Diego started strong from the outside, as soon as he closed he began to experience the full effect of Castillo’s abilities. Even though Diego had Castillo flinching (1:34) with his counters, Louis began to get through with serious uppercuts. Chico got roughed up pretty much and ended the round with a little nick over his right eye: 9/10 Castillo (28/28).
ROUND FOUR had Corrales again starting at distance and scoring well. However, in keeping with his “plan” to meet inside fire with inside fire, he closed, and the two looked pretty much like those twins conjoined at the head, only these two were trying to commit fratricide. At some point in this round Castillo sustained a pretty bad cut under his left eyebrow. There was a very heavy right cross thrown by Diego which struck cleanly at that eye. Referee Weeks called an unintentional head butt, which is plausible as the two fighters most often were left head to left head when brawling inside. Castillo closed the round’s last ten seconds in a full bore assault on Chico: 9/10 Castillo (37/38).
ROUND FIVE was opened by Diego staying outside for most of the first minute. Chico often beat Castillo to the punch with a slight edge in accuracy during this round. Corrales pretty much stole the round by pinning Jose against the ropes from 0:30 to 0:15 and then rolling to ring center to stay loose ’till the bell: 10/9 Corrales (47/47).
ROUND SIX saw Castillo getting away with low blows by throwing them when Weeks was on the opposite side. Castillo is a cleaver hombre. Not so cleaver, however, that he avoided being staggered by Diego (0:47). Recovering from that, he provided tit-for-tat when he finished strong (0:12) causing Chico to dip and sway after being hit from every angle: 9/10 Castillo (56/57).
ROUND SEVEN: Speaking of twins.along about this time Chico began to look like Ebo Elder in his fight with Courtney Burton. He had a small welt over his right eye and a very fast-growing blood balloon under his left eye. Peering over this purple pillow he saw an opportunity to clock Castillo (0:55) and Jose’s knees buckled dangerously. They both soldiered on to the end of the round in a FOTY frenzy. Jim Gray would confess later that, “It was the best fight I have ever seen”. For the really close to KD effort by Diego he got the seventh round: 10/9 Corrales (66/66).
Between rounds Jose’s corner tells him, “He’s dead, he’s dead.” Meanwhile Goosen tells Chico, “It’s all balls – am I wrong?” Jose’s guy is wrong and Diego’s got the brass.
ROUND EIGHT: Castillo was welcomed to the frame by a left-right-left combo from Chico. At 2:23 Castillo was again staggered. At 2:11 Jose is staggered again. Castillo decided that that was enough and blasted Diego’s mouthpiece right outta there. Weeks stops the action, as Chico goes right at it even though his pearlies are now at risk, and gets the rubber back on the choppers. Refreshed from his time out Corrales wobbles Jose for the third time (0:23) in the round: 10/9 Corrales (76/75).
Between rounds Goosen implores, “Do not stop on me! Smother him”. The ring doctor apparently asks Goosen if Chico can continue. Goosen answers, “Yes he can Doc.”
ROUND NINE: Castillo controlled the action in this round but was finally caught twice throwing below the equator and was seriously warned twice by Weeks. The ref was content to let them rumble inside and had to break the only a few Ruiz-a-thons. At 0:56 Castillo was again staggered, but carried the round overall: 9/10 Castillo (85/85).
ROUND TEN was one for the ages. At 2:35 Corrales dips down, with his guards down, and leans in prompting Castillo to stun him to the canvass, with a left hook, with Diego spitting out his protector. 2:22 Diego up, and time out for the mouthpiece.2:17. 2:07 Corrales eats another left and does another canvass-kisser spitting rubber again. This time Weeks takes a point for the loose latex 1:50. As Joe proceeds to replace Diego’s tooth guard he says, “You gotta F’N get inside on him now”. No kidding!
Therefore Chico rips a big right (1:35) then (1:28) drives Jose back with another right, then (1:25) a big right cross against the ropes and at 1:19 a slashing right hook. At this point (1:15) Weeks can be seen watching Jose very closely.not taking his eyes off him for a second. He looked very concerned. 1:08 Diego drives Jose back against the ropes with a left then (1:06) Castillo tries a straight right with little effect as Corrales counters with a pretty good left hook. After a bit of mugging around with Castillo’s back against the ropes (0:59) Chico flurries Left, right, left, right ending (0:58) with a big right and (0:57) another right and, finally, a huge left hook knocks Castillo’s head dangling with the whites of his eyes showing, arms down and completely vulnerable.
Chico misses a whistling right as the referee steps in to prevent what most likely would have been a very dangerous end to Jose’s work for the evening. From what would have been a sure 7/10 round for Corrales, owing to the two KD’s he sustained, he rallied to stop Castillo in the tenth. This ended what had been a stupendous encounter between these two intrepid warriors.
Castillo attempted to characterize Corrales’ eight counts as charitable while his stoppage was premature. Not many, who value his health and want to see him live to fight another day, would agree. He was gracious in defeat and was, in fact, appropriately credited by Corrales who thanked Jose for the privilege of fighting him, which Diego described as “an honor”. There was talk of a re-match and/or the possibility that Chico might move up a division. He would probably be wise to compete at this weight for more unification, and possibly an undisputed crown.
Again, Showtime has demonstrated its ability to present Boxing Matches which make trivial most pay-per-view events. Such is good for the sport, for many more people are exposed to the white-knuckle excitement and adventure of prize fighting. Also Gary Shaw has proven well suited to the task of preserving and defending the legitimate side of the sport. Bernstein’s matchless color and Gray’s no nonsense interviews are the perfect condiments for these fistic feasts.
Finally, Diego Corrales deserves his belts and our respect. As we interviewed him in Vegas several months ago, it was obvious that the petty complainer of old has matured into a gracious champion.not only for his own titles but as a champion of and for the sport. As a past chauvinist for Casamayor, biased against Diego, this writer has enjoyed being won over by this courageous young man. A re-match sounds great…but scary too.
Photos: Tom Casino/Showtime