Dr. Peter Edwards
When Diego Corrales (40-2, 33 KOs) and Jose Luis Castillo (52-7-1, 46 KOs) signed a contract to fight in early May, the bout was considered a candidate for fight of the year before either man stepped inside the ring.
The bout exceeded every expectation imaginable with a seesaw 10-round battle of wills, blood and guts. It was such an explosive fight that labeling the battle as the fight of the year is just not good enough, it's almost an insult. Many experts feel the first meeting should be considered as one of the greatest fights of the last 25 years. Others call it the fight of the decade, the fight of the millennium and the Hagler-Hearns of the new generation.
As history has shown, most rematches are never as good as the first encounter. You can go back to the beginning of boxing time.
Review the first meetings of Joe Louis-Max Schmeling, Muhammad Ali-Joe Frazier, Evander Holyfield-Riddick Bowe, Sugar Ray Leonard-Thomas Hearns, Arturo Gatti-Micky Ward, Alexis Arguello-Aaron Pryor, Julio Cesar Chavez-Meldick Taylor, Marco Barrera-Erik Morales and Roberto Duran-Sugar Ray Leonard. All of these bouts have one thing in common. They were all five-star caliber meetings, and they all had rematch encounters that failed to live up to their first chapters.
All of the rematches were good fights, some even great, but they were missing that excitement and competitive spirit of the initial meetings. Some of the rematches were not even contested on even grounds, they were one-sided in favor of either the winner or loser of the first meeting.
In most cases, if a third meeting was involved, the third encounter was usually better than the second and came close to matching the drama of the first.
Why is this a trend in boxing? Nobody can really give a definitive answer to that question. It could be because of all the pressure that the boxing public puts on both fighters to match the level of performance that was displayed in the first bout. It could be because both fighters know what to expect in the second meeting. It could be because the first fight was so fierce and so much punishment was dished out, that one fighter, or even both of them, are never the same again.
The case for this fight is no different than any other fight mentioned in this article. We have a rematch that rides high on very big expectations. The first meeting was overlooked by many fans. There were even empty seats in the arena on fight night. The initial May 7 meeting only had a crowd of 5,168. The reason was not because of the fighters, but because the fight was in the same timeframe as the anticipated meeting between Felix Trinidad and Winky Wright. After the Castillo-Corrales fight was over, stories of the legendary 10th round spread like a bad forest fire.
The rematch fell in the timeframe of another big event which involved fighters that were bigger household names, the Roy Jones-Antonio Tarver trilogy pay-per-view. But this time around, most fans were only focused on purchasing the Castillo-Corrales rematch.
What a few months can do for a great fight is unbelievable. The rematch is expecting a sellout crowd of up to 17,500. The promoters, Top Rank and Gary Shaw, expect $4 million dollars in ticket sales.
During the buildup for the first fight, both men predicted a war that would end in a knockout.
From the start, Corrales surprised experts by standing toe to toe with Castillo and waging war on the inside. It was predicted that Corrales would use his height and reach, but that was not the case. It was even more surprising that Corrales was holding his own on the inside and at times appeared to be winning.
Castillo is known as one of the better body punchers in the business and Corrales not only stood up to his body attack at close range, he fired back with his own attack to the body. They traded rounds like baseball cards. If Castillo won the first round, Corrales was determined to win the second. Going into the final round, most had it scored in one direction or the other by a single point. Some even had the fight scored a draw.
At the start of the 10th round, Corrales appeared to be coming on, but walked right into a left hook from Castillo. Corrales went down hard and, for the moment, the fight appeared close to being over. Corrales lost his mouthpiece and was given some extra time to recover in order for the mouthpiece to be reinserted by his trainer.
Once the fight restarted, Castillo jumped right back on Corrales with both fists targeting his chin. An accumulation of punches dropped Corrales for the second time in the fight. After he went down for the second time, Corrales took the mouthpiece out of his mouth with his glove and dropped it. The referee, Tony Weeks, called a halt to the action to deduct a point from Corrales for taking out his mouthpiece and then gave him more time by bringing him to his corner so Joe Goossen could once again reinsert the mouthpiece.
The chances of Corrales winning the fight appeared to be over, unless he was able to score a knockout. Castillo appeared to be well on his way to win the fight, as he was riding on a potential 10th-round that would have been scored 10-6 in his favor. Some were unsure if Corrales would even make it out of the round.
Then the unthinkable happened. Castillo was hurt by a Corrales right and then a perfectly planted left. Corrales now had Castillo in trouble and appeared to have cleared the cobwebs of the two knockdowns. Castillo was still punching back, but Corrales' power punches were now landing flush and broke Castillo down. The hands of Castillo dropped to his side, his eyes were rolling to the back of his head and he was being held up by the ropes. Weeks jumped in to stop the fight before a defenseless Castillo was hit by another Corrales power punch. And so the legend was born.
The rematch has been labeled with unrealistic expectations, some that are not fair to the combatants involved. Both men have said that the first round of the rematch will be the continuation of the first fight, they are calling the first round Round 11.
The rematch is coming so soon after the first meeting that it would not be far fetched to think the both men have not recovered from the beatings they gave eachother. Will Corrales box this time around? Will Castillo work the body to slowly break Corrales down? Nobody knows for sure if they plan to satisfy the blood thirsty fans who want both men to wage war one more time.
However they choose to do it, the fight should be one of the most exciting bouts of the year. The winner of the rematch will come down to one thing: Who recovered better from the first fight. On Sunday morning, we will have our answer.
