by David P. Greisman
Photo © Chris Cozzone/FightWireImages
Jose Luis Castillo is days away from mounting the scale, but can he scale the mountain?
For a fantastic 11-month run, Castillo had been at his peak, victories over Juan Lazcano, Joel Casamayor and Julio Diaz leading into a lightweight showdown with Diego Corrales. He was firmly out of the shadow of Julio Cesar Chavez and a good distance from decision losses to Floyd Mayweather Jr.
The first Corrales bout was the summit.
With those 10 amazing rounds, Castillo was on top of the world, widely admired for his role in that May 2005 brawl despite his suffering a heartbreaking stoppage loss. He was courageous. He was a warrior. He was a force to be reckoned with.
The second and third Corrales bouts were his nadir.
For their October rematch, Castillo weighed in at 138.5 pounds, easily missing the lightweight limit. Corrales, blinded by courage and weakened by drying down to 135, fought on and was knocked out in the fourth round by a lethal left hook.
After Corrales suffered an injury prior to a scheduled February rubber match, Castillo took a stay-busy bout against Rolando Reyes, cruising to an easy 12-round decision. But once more, Castillo chose the wrong method of showing that he was no lightweight, checking in at 138 pounds.
The writing should have been on the wall. And in a way, it was.
Thirty days prior to his final clash with Corrales – rescheduled for June 3 – Castillo reportedly missed a target weight of 148 pounds. Seven days before the bout, he had, depending on which report you read, either dropped down to 142 or missed that target as well. And then came the day of the final weigh-in.
The scales read 139.5.
Disappointment, of course, produced controversy and criticism. To some, Jose Luis Castillo was a coward. A liar. A farce who had wrecked his previous reputation.
Lost somewhere was the idea that Castillo just couldn’t make weight anymore. His body – starved so long of a regular diet, proper hydration and a stable lifestyle – needed a change.
And that brings Castillo to his critical mass, a point at which he must either make weight or make way for those who can carry stardom without starvation. His fight on Saturday against Herman Ngoudjo will be at junior welterweight, but the additional five pounds of breathing room aren’t necessarily making things any easier. In June, Castillo appeared to have drained himself completely just to be nearly five pounds over the lightweight limit. A leap to the 147-pound division seemed a far wiser choice.
Castillo is days away from mounting the scale, but whether he will also be on weight is uncertain. One report had him at 146.5 on Saturday, but that figure cannot carry much certainty in a world where James Toney is supposedly at 223 pounds one week but is 234 the next.
With all plans working toward a mega-fight against Ricky Hatton, Jose Luis Castillo must scale the mountain, for failure to do so will bring him one step closer to rock bottom.
The 10 Count
1. Just days after defeating Jose Antonio Rivera to regain the World Boxing Association’s 154-pound title, Travis Simms went from opening boxing fans’ eyes to making them shake their heads.
In a lawsuit filed shortly before he took on Rivera, Simms claims that his two-year layoff from boxing was due not to legal battles with the WBA and Don King, but from a ruptured right Achilles tendon suffered during a Jan. 2005 basketball game, according to the Associated Press.
Simms, who was playing in an adult basketball league sponsored by the Connecticut city of Norwalk, is arguing that the city Recreation and Parks Department failed to upgrade the gym floor and did not provide adequate lighting, thereby creating hazardous conditions that led to his injury.
2. Cornelius Bundrage, a junior middleweight prospect who appeared in the second season of boxing reality show The Contender, triumphed via split decision in a tough battle against Chris Smith on ESPN2’s Friday Night Fights.
After a freakish May 2005 first-round loss to Sechew Powell that saw a double knockdown in the opening seconds before the next Powell power shot amazingly dropped Bundrage to the canvas three more times, Bundrage entered The Contender in the role of underdog. Fittingly, Bundrage barked on camera, and Michael Clark and Walter Wright felt his bite as K9 fought his way into the semifinals. A loss to Steve Forbes did little harm, as Bundrage became one of seven competitors signed to a Tournament of Contenders promotional contract.
Although the close win over Smith may not be what Bundrage needed to fully capitalize on his newfound stardom, the experience should still prove valuable for helping him progress into a more complete fighter.
3. On the televised undercard, fellow Contender Walter Wright stopped the undefeated but unheralded Dan Wallace in the eighth and final round, an exciting end that satisfied Wright’s hometown crowd. After losing to the aforementioned Bundrage in the quarterfinals of the reality show, Wright came back and stopped Vinroy Barrett on the undercard of the live finale. At the age of 25 and with only 15 bouts under his belt, Wright has some potential to bloom as long as he continues to stay busy.
4. And that, it seems, is the issue for Bundrage, Wright, the five other contracted fighters from the second season and the three remaining from the first run. Unlike the aftermath of The Contender’s time on NBC, the show’s promotional company seems less intent on television specials with incestuous matchmaking and more set on the idea that stardom comes not out of publicity but instead from winning good, important fights.
Peter Manfredo is scheduled to face super middleweight titlist Joe Calzaghe. Sergio Mora is in the running for the Jermain Taylor sweepstakes. And season two runner-up Steve Forbes has been mentioned as a potential opponent for junior welterweight prospect Demetrius Hopkins. But in order to keep its fighters both happy and under contract, Tournament of Contenders must learn how to hold more shows – both on television and off – before it even considers filming a third season that will do little but create more mouths to feed.
5. Meanwhile in Minnesota, Contender first-season personality Anthony Bonsante extended his career with a unanimous decision victory over Matt Vanda. After getting knocked out in the Contender quarterfinals by Jesse Brinkley, Bonsante slipped into a four-fight losing streak that had him looking aged and shopworn. But with the Vanda win, Bonsante may have set himself up for one final payday in March against middleweight prospect and surefire ticket-seller John Duddy.
As for Vanda, it was his third loss, but, more noteworthy, his first dropped decision in Minnesota. And after a couple of controversial victories that appeared criminal in nature, it’s fitting that not only did Vanda come up on the short end of the stick against someone else from his home state, but that it came shortly after the state reinstated its boxing commission and installed Scott LeDoux as its new commissioner.
6. Referee Laurence Cole was suspended last week for an incident during November’s Juan Manuel Marquez-Jimrex Jaca featherweight bout, according to an article by John Whisler of the San Antonio Express-News.
In the eighth round, shortly after an accidental head butt opened up a cut on Marquez’ face near where another clash of heads had done damage earlier, Cole informed Marquez that he was ahead on the scorecards. Marquez ignored the implication that he could say he was unable to continue and take a technical decision, rallying to knockout Jaca in the ninth.
Cole, who has admitted to and apologized for his mistake, was fined $500 by Texas officials and given a three-month suspension that will be followed by a three-month probationary period.
Cole will not be able to referee in Texas from January through March, and then from April until July 1 he cannot work title fights, bouts being televised or eliminator matches for future title fights that would be held in Texas.
7. Almazbek “Kid Diamond” Raiymkulov took a surprisingly one-sided decision over what appeared to be a severely diminished Emanuel Augustus, outpointing the beloved journeyman over 10 rounds on Versus’ Fight Night. For Raiymkulov, it was his biggest win since Nate Campbell knocked him out in 2005, and it may set up another run toward lightweight contention. As for Augustus, he looked drained by having to drop below his usual junior welterweight poundage for a fight he took on two days’ notice, though he may also finally be feeling the toll of a long career. While the lopsided loss won’t do Augustus any favors, hopefully a network like HBO can reward him in the same manner that Micky Ward received a career-high payday after years of being an underappreciated, underrated entertainer.
8. Clenbuterol: turning Tia Carrera into Mariano Carrera since 2006.
9. Boxers Behaving Badly: While Mike Tyson is potentially facing more than seven years in prison for felony charges of drug and paraphernalia possession and misdemeanor charges of driving under the influence of drugs, his former trainer is also in a legal bind.
Kevin Rooney – a former boxer who lost to Alexis Arguello and Davey Moore but who came to fame by helping to build Tyson into a champion – was indicted earlier this month on felony charges of drunken driving and aggravated unlicensed driving, according to the Kingston Daily Freeman.
The drunken driving charge is a felony due to a previous drunken driving conviction that occurred within 10 years of Rooney’s April 2006 arrest.
10. Re: The photos of Fernando Vargas at the Los Angeles premiere of the movie “Alpha Dog,” found online at iesb.net – Is Vargas’ swan song going to be fighting Ricardo Mayorga, or eating him?
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