Corrales-Castillo II: ESPN sees it my way : )

This is a bit lengthy, and I know a lot of you have trouble paying attention so just read the highlighted parts. ;) "On Saturday night at the Thomas & Mack Center in Las Vegas, Jose Luis Castillo proved he was the world's best 147-pound lightweight by stopping Diego Corrales with a punishing left hook in the fourth round of what was a continuation of their classic May slugfest. But "Chico" Corrales retains his WBC and WBO lightweight straps. He should, as he was the only true lightweight in there (well, at least when they weighed in Friday afternoon he was). Corrales always talked of having "his war," which he got the last time he faced the rugged Mexican. This time he may have gotten his Waterloo. Call me Oliver Stone, but I get the sneaking suspicion that Castillo and his representatives never had any intention of making the 135-pound weight limit. And they might have known it long before they got to Vegas. Hey, you just don't step on the scales a day or two before the fight and find out you're heavy: a fighter's weight is monitored almost daily by trainers in most instances. Castillo came in several pounds over and then seemingly made no effort to shed any weight. While Corrales had to sacrifice the last week or so to hit the mark, Castillo was allowed to come in comfortably without starching himself. Castillo certainly didn't act like a guy who was worried about his conditioning, did he? If you think about it, with him halting Corrales, most likely not having to pay sanctioning fees (since he was ineligible to win the belts this weekend), and now with him getting at least purse parity in a third fight (as Corrales promoter Gary Shaw stated clearly that he would invoke the rematch clause), Castillo probably comes out ahead in this whole thing. I always said this guy was a smart fighter, but I didn't know he was that cunning. This isn't the first time that a fighter and his camp have tried to stretch the rules regarding weigh-ins. But this is probably the most brazen anyone has been in simply ignoring the edicts of the game and making up their own rules. One of the basic premises of boxing is that at least when it comes to weight, fighters should be on an even playing field. Here, the integrity of the weigh-in was compromised. "I can't really explain except what I feel, that the second and third time that I weighed him -- and I'll never know on the first time because somebody may have had foot on there, so I don't know -- but I know on the second and third weigh-in he never dropped an ounce," said Marc Ratner, the executive director of the Nevada State Athletic Commission (which oversaw this event) after the fight. "So I'm very disappointed in that. He did weigh 147 today. When I weighed Corrales at 6 o'lock he weighed 149. But I don't know how hard it was for him to get to 135, and that's the question for Corrales." To the layman, three pounds looks minuscule. To a fighter, especially one with Corrales' stature, it's putting your body through an unhealthy and unnatural process of cutting out much-needed fluids and nutrients. "We couldn't even eat full meals for the last week," said his trainer Joe Goossen, referring to his fighter's battle with the scales. Nowadays, fighters weigh in a day before the bout and then balloon up to two, sometimes three, weight classes by the time the bell rings. The reason is two-fold: Weigh-ins are now used as a promotional vehicle and they also allow boxers to rehydrate themselves properly. "I don't know if that's the answer either," said Ratner, when asked of the possibility of going back to weigh-ins on the day of the bout. "Maybe doing it at night and then doing it the next morning with a certain percentage that you can't gain." Of course, it doesn't matter if a boxer has no intention on making weight, regardless. Jay Larkin, the boxing czar of Showtime, which carried the pay-per-view broadcast, said: "There's a lot of theory that says if you do the weigh-in and it gets covered by national media and local TV media the day before it helps drive the attention towards the fight. Now that's probably true in a few, rare cases where the fight is big enough to warrant coverage by the national media. Ninety-nine out of 100 fights do not warrant coverage by the national media for the weigh-in. So I would say you weigh the gain against the potential loss. "And I would say the first priority in boxing has to be fighter safety and I do believe that the entire process of weighing in has to get looked at, re-examined, readdressed and there has to be a better way of doing it." A couple of sanctioning bodies have taken steps to have gradual weigh-ins, in which boxers must hit certain landmarks weeks before the fight. "That's a good possibility," Ratner says, but he added there could be logistical problems that come along with implementing that. "I don't know how you do it in certain places. Suppose they're in the mountains of Mexico. I don't know how you can implement it and how you get honest weights." The problem for Corrales was that unfortunately, despite him having played by the rules, the onus was on him to acquiesce and allow some ramifications in the rules to allow Castillo to face him. Some say this whole saga made a mockery of the sport (perhaps it did to a certain degree), but having this much anticipated rematch get postponed would have been catastrophic for the industry. I met too many fans ringside who had traveled thousands of miles to watch this fight in person. I'm sure people all over the country made specific plans to view the fight on pay-per-view. And Corrales is the consummate fighter. After all this work, he wanted to get it on, and of course, get paid. The stuff inside Corrales that allowed him to get off the canvas twice in May had him believing he could do it again, no matter what weight Castillo came in at. Pack up and tell everyone to go home, and you might have lost customers for life. Corrales took one for the game of boxing, but unfortunately on the chin from a bigger fighter. "I think if you sign a contract you should be able to make the weight," Ratner said. "This contract, I assume, was signed three months ago, and to come in heavy, over three pounds, is really disappointing and it's wrong. Then to have one of the corner persons cheat is horrible." Emotions got heated once Castillo was done speaking and had left the stage to conduct one-on-one interviews. As Shaw saw the loud commotion that Castillo was causing to the left of the platform, he said: "When Diego took the title from Castillo, we stayed here the whole time on the dais. This is total disrespect." Just as he uttered those words, Bob Arum, who can be just as sore a winner as he is as a loser, walked in front of the stage and said a few angry words to Shaw. "Get out of here, Bob!" Shaw shouted in response, preventing perhaps a walk-out bout between the two rival promoters. As Arum said a few more choice words, Shaw said forcefully, "Shut up, Bob!" And Arum was gone, exit stage right. (I love this game, I really do.) After stating that they would invoke the rematch clause for 2006, Shaw said: "Only one person made the required weight and that was Diego Corrales and he made 135 pounds, and that takes something out of someone." But soon, he was second guessing himself. "I question myself allowing the fight to go at a weight and not forcing that fighter to make the weight," he said. "I don't know if I'd do that again because it was unfair to Diego Corrales." Throughout the night, as the questions mounted, Shaw would get more and more forceful and pointed in his accusations. Shaw, who until this point was having a picture perfect 2005, shows his emotions like Paris Hilton shows skin. In other words, he ain't shy about it. As he brought up his fighter to the mic, he announced Corrales as the "135-pound champion." Corrales was as stand-up a guy as you could possibly expect. He would praise Castillo for his efforts and apologize to his fans. He was asked if he felt Castillo had purposely circumvented the process of the weigh-in. "I'm not going to muck up and destroy this guy's win," he said with class. "Castillo came in, did a good job, he landed a good shot and I'm not going to destroy his win, just like I didn't want with my win in the last bout." He makes an interesting point. But the latest controversy should not taint this fantastic four-round battle. This wasn't so much a fourth-round KO as it was a 14th-round knockout. These two just simply picked up where they left off, fighting at a brisk and brutal pace. Their back-and-forth exchanges were at the highest levels, and their ebb-and-flow had the crowd breathless. And you can't overlook Castillo, who has just completed a run in the last 16 months that has seen him beat Juan Lazcano, Joel Casamayor, and Julio Diaz, followed by his classic series with Corrales. "He performed terrifically; he showed everybody that he's the best lightweight in the world," duBoef said, forgetting that his charge came nowhere near the lightweight limit. If you look at the 14 rounds that have been fought between the two, it has been Corrales who has taken more of the punishment. Judging by what happened Saturday night, if they should fight at junior welterweight or beyond, it would seem to favor Castillo. Maybe they should go their separate ways. One guy (Castillo) should move up in weight, which some think he's already done, and the other (Corrales) should stick to fighting guys his own weight, which he didn't get to do this past weekend." From ESPN.com Sounds like everything I've been saying since and before Saturday :D