The Return Match!

[H2O Man]

This weekend is the return match of Jose Luis Castillo and the lightweight champion Diego Corrales. In the months following their first match, it was called everything from "the greatest fight ever" to the "greatest lighweight fight ever." I think that this is due to the extremely brutal, and the back-and-forth nature of the fight.

Three questions: {1} Who do you favor in the rematch?; {2} What was the best lightweight fight you have seen?;and {3} Who do you think were the top few lightweight champions of all time?

[H2O Man]

1. Yikes!

Where are all the boxing fans? Best damned sport in the world! Heck of a fight coming up this weekend .....

[dr.zoidberg]

2. You beat me to starting the thread!

I wasn't going to start the thread until Wednesday.

Would you believe that I never saw the first fight live? Thank God for Showtime's boxing site, which has the entire fight in clip separated by round.

The unfortunate part is that I will probably not see this fight live because I don't order PPVs. I wish I would, because Arce/Hussein is on the undercard and I would love to see that fight, too.

What I viewed from watching the first fight is that Castillo was beating Corrales up until Castillo got KO'ed, especially with all the knockdowns that Corrales suffered. I really see no reason that Castillo can't do it again. I personally wonder how much these two men have left in the tank. The first fight was exceptionally brutal, and I expect the second one to be brutal as well. Both men will never be the same again. I'll say Castillo wins, but this fight goes the distance.

As far as lightweight champions go, I'll have to go with Alexis Arguello, Pernell Whitaker, and of course, Roberto Duran.

The greatest lightweight fight for me is Duran/Buchanan. That fight was the start of the big time for Duran. That and Duran won by clearly punching Buchanan in the balls }(.

I've always wondered what your opinion is of Matthew Saad-Muhammed. I viewed him as an entertaining action fighter with one hell of an overhand right. His fights in the defense of his Lightheavyweight belt were entertaining, frequently featuring him coming from be hing and KO'ing his opponent. He also happens to be my favorite fighter of all time.

[H2O Man]

3. Matthew Saad-Muhammad!

You almost needed a seat belt to watch that man's fights! I was really impressed with him -- I suppose everyone was. But he was a throw-back to the old-school "defense" .... which was to tire the opponent out by having them hit you.

Recently ESPN Classic played a couple of his fights. One was with Dwight Quawi, who I liked. Rubin had trained him in Rahway. My son had never seen Matthew fight, and he was amazed. He asked me if Matthew could beat "good" fighters! Man, that was the best light heavyweight division since the late 1950s.

Regarding the weekend fight: Corrales has been hit too much. Not good. At some point, it ends badly. I thought the fight was brutal, and in that sense great. Both took too many punches, and the lack of defensive skills was what made it what it was. I expect Corrales to be trained to box at a distance this time, but once he gets hit, he may revert to slugging. It may be more like the 2nd Ali-Frazier fight.

[Awsi Dooger]

4. Duran

He's the only dominant lightweight I've ever seen. Admittedly, my interest level declines severely below middleweight and especially below welterweight. I didn't watch the first fight and really don't know anything about these guys.

Probably because I'm tall at nearly 6-4, but I really can't relate to little guys flailing around in the ring, so my interest is virtually nil. I'm not claiming it makes perfect sense or anyone else should feel that way, but that's where I'll always be. I've attended weigh-ins at low weight classes and walked past the fighters. They are so small it's beyond belief. I'm not interested in jockeys punching each other.

The best low weight class bout I ever saw was Pryor/Arguello, in person at the Orange Bowl in late '82. I'm from Miami and there hadn't been a huge fight in the city since I was too young to know it, probably Clay/Liston. I attended more for the atmosphere than the fight. The Hispanic populus was incredibly captivated by Arguello. I think that fight was technically super lightweight/junior welterweight, but it was terrific. I won a bet on Pryor because he was a good sized (2/1+) underdog even though he was the bigger guy. My gut feeling was he couldn't be KO'ed but Arguello had some vulnerability in that regard. Seems like my boxing handicapping was better at that point than in the '90s and later.

[H2O Man]

5. Duran

There was a time when my oldest brother hoped to get hired on as a sparring partner for Duran. He was lucky it didn't happen. I can remember people talking about what he was like in training for a fight. I think that he had the intensity in training that you hear about Rocky Marciano having.

His fight with Ken Buchanan was mentioned earlier. Buchanan would have gone down in history as one of the greatest boxers, because he was absolutely wonderful in terms of being a "stylist." Yet Duran, besides overpowering him, was out-boxing him, too. Duran was a great talent, beyond his unreal punching power as a lightweight. The fight that showed this best, but which will never be appreciated, was his fight with Haglar.

I have great film of Arguello hanging out with my boys when they were little. My youngest boy has the same hair style as the champ. It may sound odd to others that I would treasure something like that, but I do. I thought he was one of boxing's true class acts.

A couple of my favorites were Mondo Ramos, a great Mexican fighter who ended up partying his talent away, and Teo Cruz, who died in a tragic plane accident with his beautiful wife and their two children. Carlos Ortiz was another great fighter. The lightweight division has always been one of my favorites. Ismael Laguna was able to throw hard punches on his tip-toes! I guess I exposing my age here!

[H2O Man]

6. Non-title match now .....

Castillo couldn't make weight. It's a non-title fight.

[H2O Man]

7. Castillo wins in 4 .....

Castillo looked much, much bigger. He came in overweight, and so it was not for the title. His people would not "allow" the commission to move the scale up to his full weight. Corrales' manager should have insisted he make weight. Mark Ratner, the commissioner, was wishy-washy about if Castillo was too big to allow the fight to go on, or not.

When the first round started, I said it was a welterweight fighting a lightweight. I expected Corrales to be stopped in the later rounds, because the size difference was too much for him to take on in a long fight.

The first three rounds were similar in content to the first fight. Corrales was cut in the second round. Both were landing low blows, and fighting rough. But in the 4th, Castillo landed a hook inside Corrales' lead, and flattened him.

Corrales tried to get up, but he couldn't work his right arm or leg. Still, he managed to get most of the way up, and stumble forward when Joe Cortez (a great ref!), waved the fight off. The HBO guys were not able to process that Corrales was counted out, than you have to be "up" before 10.

Corrales was a good sport. He refused to make any excuse. Jim Gray made clear that he felt the weight issue decided the fight.

[dr.zoidberg]

8. Corrales apparently can't block the left hook.

I just can't believe that Corrales wanted to trade at the start of the fight instead of boxing. It just doesn't make any sense to me. Apparently, they will have a third match now.

Jim Grey is an asshole. Much bigger than Larry Merchant. At least Merchant sometimes can make a good observation on a fight. Of course, he can also make a stupid one as well. Sometimes he makes both in the same sentence! Grey is the same guy that James Toney threatened to beat up if Grey didn't stop talking down to him.

[H2O Man]

9. I thought

Jim Grey might ask Corrales his opinion of Pete Rose. But Jim has such healthy boundries!