(May 7, 2008) – By Matt Yanofsky: One year ago today, the boxing world lost one of its legendary warriors as Diego Corrales died at age 29 following a motorcycle crash in Las Vegas, Nevada. Shortly after the crash, Las Vegas police revealed that Corrales’ blood alcohol level was nearly 3 times the legal limit during the time of the accident.
Corrales was the perfect example of how a fighter may have a chin made out of glass and still have steel-like heart and rock solid toughness. Although weak legs do to being weight drained was often the case, Chico became accustomed to coming off the canvas while inside the squared circle. This included five trips to the canvas against Floyd Mayweather, three in his trilogy with Joel Casamayor and once against Acelino Freitas among others. While always doing his best to get up and continue fighting is impressive, nothing comes close to what he did exactly three years ago today.
On May 7th, 2005, Corrales, The WBC Lightweight champion, put his title on the line in a unification bout with WBO kingpin Jose Luis Castillo. The fight was expected to be an action bout, but what actually happened couldn’t have been predicted. From the opening bell, Corrales and Castillo traded shots and refused to take a step back as the fight was extremely competitive.. This was until a turning point in the 10th round as many fans were thinking about the famous saying that goes “all good things must come to an end”.
Castillo dropped Corrales with a picture perfect left hook just 25 seconds into the tenth round, sending him onto the canvas. Corrales, who intentionally spit out his mouth piece, arose to his feet at the count of 8 then received a brief break as the mouth piece had to be cleaned off. When the action continued, Corrales was on queer street as Castillo continued to tee off before scoring another knockdown. Corrales, who this time intentionally removed his mouth piece with his glove, got up at the count of 9 and then received a point deduction for delaying the fight due to his mouth piece antics.
After another brief time out to again clean the mouth piece, Corrales trainer Joe Goosen said “you gotta f****n get inside on him now” although Goosen probably figured at this time his fighter was going to be stopped shortly. As the Adidas catchphrase says “impossible is nothing”, and Corrales would be the perfect example of why.
Seconds after action returned, Corrales came out of nowhere and sprung back to life stunned the iron-chinned Castillo with a straight right hand. Corrales then threw a barrage of hooks and had Castillo out on his feet. Referee Tony Weeks jumped in to stop the contest at 2:06 of the 10th round of what went on to become fight of the year and to some, the greatest of all time. This would also be the last fight Corrales won.
On October 8th 2005 only 5 months after their thrilling war, Jose Luis Castillo missed weight for their rematch by 3.5 lbs. While many fighters would refuse to take the bout with an opponent who missed weight, Chico went on with the fight but lost by fourth round knockout. A third fight was scheduled for June 3rd 2006 however, Castillo again missed weight, this time by 4.5 lbs. Corrales was advised by his promoter, trainer, and manager not to take the fight and this time the bout was cancelled. Although there was no 3rd fight, Corrales’ body was still badly damaged as making the 135 lb limit at 6 feet tall was a grueling task for him.
Tides ended up turning for Corrales, as he was the one to miss weight prior to losing his titles in a split decision to Joel Casamayor on October 7th, 2006. Corrales, who said he didn’t even think he could make 140, had plans to move up to 147 lbs in the near future. It is extremely rare that a fighter moves up two weight classes and those who do definitely take on soft opposition to test out the waters. This was not the case with Chico.
Corrales shocked the boxing world once again by announcing he would be taking not only perhaps the most rugged, but also one of the most avoided welterweights in Joshua Clottey. Corrales weighed in at 149 lbs and walked into the ring on fight night at much healthier looking 160 lbs but unfortunately bit off more then he could chew. Corrales fought hard and landed some clean shots but was unable to move his opponent. Clottey, who was the much bigger and stronger man, dominated Corrales and dropped him twice before winning a wide unanimous decision.
Corrales’ heart may not have been enough to bring him to a title at 147 lbs as many expected his career was finished but the boxing world will never know. While Corrales didn’t exactly have a clean criminal record, he was always known as a family man. Corrales leaves behind a wife, six children, millions of fans, and a warrior’s mentality which may go unmatched forever.