By Dr. Peter Edwards

These days, it’s very easy to take shortcuts in the sport of boxing. A trilogy meeting between Deigo Corrales (40-3, 33 KOs) and Jose Luis Castillo went bust after Castillo was unable to make weight. Rather than look for an easy fight, Diego Corrales found the toughest opponent in his weight class - Joel Casamayor (33-3-1, 21 KOs).

On Saturday night, at the Mandalay Bay Resort & Casino in Las Vegas, Corrales get a chance to settle the score when he defends his WBC lightweight title against Casamayor. These fighters do not like each other. The hate runs very deep and the third fight should produce plenty of fireworks.

"I think we have bad blood between us because we started off on the wrong foot and we stayed that way. We're like oil and water. We don't mix. I know he's going to bring an explosive performance because this means everything to him. But it means everything to me too. I'm looking to close this chapter in my career. When I'm done with him there won't be enough of him to send back to Cuba. I'm going to torture him. I will retire him,” Corrales said.

"I don't think the fights between Corrales and Castillo were a big deal. I mean, I've been in the ring with him. I feel I have him figured out. Corrales has been in a lot of ring wars. He is burnt. I just need to touch him in the chin and he will go. I said that because I know I can hurt Corrales, and he knows it, too," Casamayor said.

The hatred began before the first fight even took place. Press conferences were filled with name-calling and predictions of knockouts.

On October 4, 2003, the two men met for the first time on the undercard to Evander Holyfield vs. James Toney in Las Vegas’ Mandalay Bay. They easily stole the show from the main event as a worldwide audience saw them battle their way to a six-round fight of the year candidate.

It was heart-pounding fight that saw both men hit the canvas. The highlight was the fourth round, that saw Corrales get decked after Casamayor landed a picture perfect right hand, but Corrales got back to his feet and came back moments later with his own left hook to send the Cuban fighter down.

The punch for punch exchanges resulted in a bad cut inside the mouth of Corrales. There was so much bleeding with the mouth of Corrales that the ringside physician would not allowed him to come out for the seventh round and stopped the fight. Casamayor won by way of a six-round technical knockout. At the time of the stoppage, Casamayor was ahead on all three scorecards, he led 58-54 twice and 57-55 on the third.

In the rematch, which happened on March 6, 2004, Corrales evened things up by changing his game plan tow in a twelve-round split decision. Corrales triumphed 115-112 twice and 114-113 was called on the third card for Casamayor. Unlike their first fight, Corrales decided that it was not in his best interest to go to war with the quick handed Casamayor and instead utilized his jab to outbox the boxer. Another interesting note was Corrales being trained by Joe Goossen for the rematch, the same man who trained Casamayor in their first encounter only a few months earlier.

"Having Joe (Goossen) in my corner is a huge advantage. He can tell me everything thing I need to know about Casamayor. But Casamayor does not have that same luxury about me," Corrales said.

Casamayor may not have the luxury of Joe Goossen in his corner, but he brought in a secret weapon for the third meeting – Roger Bloodworth, a world class trainer in his own right. There is no fear of Corrales’ punching power or Goossen, he plans to knock Corrales out in order to prove his point that he is the best lightweight in the world.

"I am going to try and knock him out. In our first fight, I hurt Corrales, but then got caught with a good shot and went down. But, if he could not knock me out with that shot, he is not going to knock me out with anything. In our rematch, the big slugger Corrales is supposed to be got very defensive minded and tried to jab. He ran the last six rounds. He ran for his life the last three,” Casamayor said. So, I will fight carefully, but aggressively. I plan to come out and dictate the action from the opening bell. My trainer, Roger Bloodworth, and I have been working on starting a little quicker. I know I have to work harder in the early rounds."

There is no predicting how the third fight will play out. Neither man looked impressive in the last bouts, but everyone expects a hot fight between the two rivals. Casamayor has come a long way since beating Wayne McCullough to win a gold medal as a bantamweight for Cuba at the 1992 Olympic Games. At 35-years of age, it’s likely his last chance at a major world title at the top level.

On the other hand, Corrales has come a long way from the fighter that was demolished by Floyd Mayweather, Jr. several years ago. Corrales wants to prove that he is not a shot fighter, and his last performance where he was dominated by Jose Luis Castillo on route to being stopped in four rounds, was due to nothing more than Castillo being the much bigger man.

Joel Casamayor summed up their their meeting better than most.

"We're two strong fighters and come Oct. 7 - we're coming to fight!