 By
Law Gardner
“Wow!” boxing fans collectively
exclaimed upon conclusion of Corrales, Castillo I. “Did I just see what I
thought I saw?”
Not only was the fight ESPN.com & Ring
Magazine’s “Fight of the Year” for 2005, it was one of the most vicious,
toe-to-toe, exhilarating slugfest’s that I’ve ever witnessed in my 30+ years as
an adoring fight fan. Rarely does the boxing community witness a fight where the
combatants throw both caution AND the natural human instinct of
self-preservation to the wind.
Sly Stallone wouldn’t dare to script such an
action packed fight into a “Rocky” storyline - well, ya he would, but he would
have to end it with Rocky dying of multiple brain aneurisms after the fight for
the sake of believability – the fight was THAT GOOD!
Back to Rocky for a second, how about
this:
At the end of “Rocky VII” when Rocky’s
lying on the table dying of multiple brain aneurisms, a grown up Ricky Schroeder
can be standing next to Rocky sobbing “Champ? Champ?!!!”.
Corrales' dramatic 10th-round TKO of
Castillo unified the WBC & WBO lightweight world titles, setting up an obvious
rematch between the two.
The rematch was far less spectacular then
the 1st fight. Castillo weighed in 2 pounds over the 135 lb. limit,
and an astounding 12 pounds over on the day of the fight. This may not sound
like much weight, but it was obvious in the outcome that it made a tremendous
difference. Castillo was able to easily absorb the seeming deadly blows of
Corrales, while using his extra weight to easily push around his opponent and
land heavier blows – which culminated in a brutal left hook in the 4th round that knocked Corrales out. Luckily for Corrales fans, the fight was a
non-title fight due to Castillo’s failure to make the weight – essentially
making the win meaningless. Which leads us to the rubber match.
I’m anticipating an all out war – whether it be for 30 seconds, or 12 rounds -
these guys are going to come out gunning and won’t stop until somebody’s dead
(that last line is for all you Rocky IV fans out there). If you have Showtime,
or can buy a ticket to the Thomas & Mack in Vegas on June 3rd , odds
are you’ll witness an extraordinary fight. May the blood flow (and it will), and
may the best man win!
Law Gardner Predicts: Corrales wins by knockout in the 5th.
Brian Ethridge Predicts:
Jose Luis Castillo by split decision. |
