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The Spokesman-Review Newspaper
Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

Lightweights ready to battle it out


Jose Luis Castillo, left, faces Diego Corrales.
 (Associated Press / The Spokesman-Review)
Tim Dahlberg Associated Press

LAS VEGAS — Diego Corrales loves a good brawl. Jose Luis Castillo refuses to back up or back off.

When the two meet tonight for the lightweight title, neither will have to go far to find the other.

“I hit him, he hits me. Let’s see who is standing after that,” Castillo said.

Castillo brings his WBC 135-pound title and Corrales brings the WBO version of the belt into a fight that looks so good on paper even the combatants are excited about the possibilities.

“It has the potential to be a legendary night,” Corrales said. “It could also be a real painful fight.”

Castillo hopes to make it that way for Corrales, an exciting fighter who looks like a somewhat smaller version of the great Thomas Hearns. The looks are not the only things the two share because, like Hearns, Corrales is a big puncher with a suspect chin.

Corrales has been down eight times in his last eight fights, but won six of them, including a dismantling last year of previously undefeated Acelino Freitas for the WBO title.

“We all know he can go down,” Castillo said through an interpreter. “Hopefully, when I hit him, he’s not getting up.”

In all fairness, five of the knockdowns came at the hands of Floyd Mayweather when the two met in a 130-pound showdown where everything that could go wrong for Corrales did. Still, Joel Casamayor, who is not considered a big puncher, had him down three times in their two fights, one of which Corrales got off the canvas in the 10th round to win.

When Corrales isn’t going down, he’s knocking other fighters down. He put Freitas on the canvas three times last August in his first fight as a lightweight and believes the added weight has only made him bigger and stronger.

“Now I’m a tried and true lightweight,” said Corrales. We’ll put a test to all of those theories Saturday night.”

The scheduled 12-round fight from the Mandalay Bay hotel-casino (Showtime, 9 p.m., tape-delayed) has already been talked about as a potential fight-of-the-year candidate. The winner will gain recognition as the best lightweight around.

Corrales hasn’t fought since beating Freitas, partly because of managerial problems and disagreements over his worth in trying to set up an earlier fight with Castillo. Castillo, meanwhile, will be fighting for the third time in six months, a rarity among boxing champions these days.

Castillo (52-6-1, 42 knockouts) stopped Julio Diaz in the 10th round March 5 and three months earlier won a split decision over Casamayor, who is 1-1 against Corrales.

Corrales (39-2, 32 knockouts) said he’s not sure when the two will first begin trading punches in earnest. But he predicted it wouldn’t take long for the fight to become a war.