SIMPLY ONE OF THE GREATEST OF ALL TIME!
Las Vegas, NV-In speaking with Showtime’s Jim Gray, the victor called the fight an honor to participate in. For all of us who love Boxing, it was an honor to watch (and the greatest of gifts on the night before I Graduate from American University with my Masters). All fans owe a thank you to these brave men tonight. In the best fight of 2005, and perhaps the best World Championship fight I have ever seen, Sacramento’s Diego Corrales, 135 lbs, added the Ring and WBC 135 lb. titles to his WBO title in stopping Mexico’s Jose Luis Castillo, also 135, with 54 seconds left in the tenth round of a fight that was a classic from the start!
PHONE BOOTH WAR BUILDS TO DRAMATIC END!
From the opening bell forward, the two warriors stood at center ring, exchanging shots and counter shots. Through the first four, it was violent chess, neither man giving nor accepting quarter from the other. That all turned in the next four rounds, with both men alternating round finishes. In the fifth and seventh, it looked as if Castillo was ready to go. At the end of the sixth and eighth, it was Corrales left reeling. The ninth round saw both men reeling to their corners, looking spent. Castillo wore a gash over his left eye; Corrales’ left eye was all but closed.
TENTH ROUND…BEST OF 2005 AND AN ENDING FOR ALL TIME!
Seconds into the tenth frame, Corrales would collapse to the canvas behind a flush right from Castillo. Lying flat on his back, and with his mouthpiece out, it appeared Corrales might not beat the count. He did, and the action commenced again with Castillo sending Corrales to the deck again. Corrales looked to this viewer even more spent now, removing his mouthpiece…but there was method to the madness.
DIEGO’S RING SMARTS GAVE HIM THE EDGE NEEDED!
When referee Tony Weeks deducted a point for Corrales, now 40-2, (33 KO’s) intentionally spitting out his mouthpiece, Corrales garnered the precious seconds he needed to clear his head, set his feet…and launch the most important assault of his career. A series of hooks and straight rights would drive Castillo to the ropes and a short left would render him defenseless on the ropes mere moments after the now 50-7-1, (46 KO’s) Castillo seemed almost certain to win. Referee Weeks RIGHTFULLY stopped the fight with Castillo ready to absorb more power shots and the fight was over.
BOTH MEN SHOWED GREATNESS TONIGHT!
I said in my column yesterday that both these men were fighting for their spots: in the rankings, in the annals of the game and perhaps in the Hall of Fame. In a fight where both men left everything behind in the ring, there can be no argument…both men made that case. I am racking my brain right now, with my hands shaking still from the excitement of this night. I am searching through every fight, every moment, for one night and one fight in the history of the lightweight division that tops this. I find none.
FORGET ABOUT IT, NEVER ONE BETTER!
Not Edwin Rosario-Jose Luis Ramirez in 1984; not Roberto Duran-Esteban De Jesus in any of their three seventies classics; not even the tapes available of the wars between Henry Armstrong and Lou Ambers. This was, for lack of better words, IT! I concluded my preview for this fight by writing “I look for Castillo to wear Corrales down in a classic, scoring a tenth round TKO and that will leave us all clamoring for a rematch.” I may have called it wrong by a smidge, but I think we can all agree that the rematch can’t come soon enough.
Cliff Rold
Note: “24-Karat” Rold is not just the best young boxing writer on the planet. He is also an award winning poet and graduate student in US Foreign Policy at the American University in Washington DC. He can be reached with your comments at [email protected]
