By: James Blears

Newly enthroned WBC Lightweight Champion Diego “Chico” Corrales wants a second crowning ceremony, with Floyd Mayweather as the special guest of honor.

Diego and his Promoter Gary Shaw, were in Mexico City to be presented with the famous green belt by WBC President Jose Sulaiman, following his thrilling, spectacular and controversial victory over toughster Jose Luis Castillo. Hugging the belt tightly Diego beamed: “Come hell or high water, I’m keeping this. I might even sleep with it tonight.”

Shaw confirmed that a re-match with Castillo is scheduled for October 8th at the Thomas & Mack Center, but he also stressed that the final deal has yet to be initialed, due to ongoing negotiations which have yet to be ironed out.

He stressed his immense pride in Diego Corrales’ fantastic comeback courage in the Castillo bout:

“When Diego was down the second time, I was thinking what I was going to say at the press conference. How I was going to bring him back again as a great champion. And the next thing I remember was running in the ring. I can’t tell you what happened between my thoughts and going up the steps."

“There are a lot of good fighters out there. But the great fighters are the ones that come back, that never quit. Jose Luis Castillo is the same way. Castillo is like a rubber band. You pull a rubber band and it snaps back, so no matter how often the referee breaks them, he’s going to be right there. I believe that if the referee had not stopped it, Jose Luis Castillo would have been swinging until he was out cold. There aren’t a lot of those type of fighters out there.”

Diego conceded that many fans now want to see round eleven against Castillo, and he’ll be more than happy to oblige. But his jaw jutted out like the Rock of Gibraltar, and his smile withered when he talked about Floyd, and the revenge he so keenly desires. Floyd stopped Diego in style, back in 2001, and the desire to take him on again has been burning within Diego, like a crackling and ever shortening fuse gathering pace.

Diego insisted: “Of course I want my revenge. I’d love to fight him again. He has to meet me. I’m not going anywhere. I don’t care about the money fighting Mayweather. For me it’s not about that. I want to fight Floyd again because of my pride. He took something from me, that I’ve got to take from him. My first loss was to him, and I want to give that back to him.”

He was realistically hard on himself, looking back on and clinically assessing his tenth round TKO defeat at the hand of Floyd saying:

“I didn’t use my jab, and I was very, very flat footed. The next time I’ll jab more use feints and make sure Floyd walks into something. I’ll be using hooks, long combinations and you don’t have to be as fast as he is, you’ve got to be smarter than the aspect of his speed.”

And to achieve all of this, Diego also has to be the wizard of oz, because with his five feet eleven inch frame reaching the required weight needs a little magic as well as strict do or diet discipline. He sighed:

“It’s never easy. It was really tough making jr lightweight and lightweight is no easier, so it is what it is.”

Gary Shaw described Diego as a hunter. And the Mexican media pack was also constantly worrying the bone of contention, concerning the spat out mouthpiece in round ten, which afforded precious extra moments of recovery time.

Diego countered: “I’ve got a cure for the controversy. I fought half of round seven without a mouthpiece, and I didn’t hear anyone making complaints then. Throughout the entire fight, I could have taken time out for a number of low blows. I did not complain, I did not take time, I fought. I showed what I was about. I couldn’t quit or let it go, I was never going to give up."

“The fight was up for grabs. Both of us had fought very, very hard, and when it came down to the stretch it was the fact that I hurt him very, very badly. And we had been beating the life out of each other for ten rounds already. Jose Luis was mentally strong to stand the punches that I’d knock most people down and out with. If I’d moved I could have made it a little bit of an easier fight. I don’t like that. There is no pride in running from a fighter. "

“I’ve never felt the kind of pain, I’ve felt after that fight. Never in my life. I felt things inside my body that people should never ever feel, and I did feel it."

“But after this re-match, he can call me for anything. I’m going to give him my home phone number. If he needs someone to spar with or to help him with some work, I’ll be there to help him out.

“If we don’t go to hospital this time, we’ll grab a beer together and split the tab. That’ll be just awesome.”