Joel Casamayor vs Diego Corrales 3

Five pounds separated Diego Corrales from the lightweight limit at his first visit to the scales, an extraordinary failure by a defending world champion who had been so incensed when Jose Luis Castillo twice exceeded the same limit. Given two hours to reduce, Corrales returned at 139 pounds, still four pounds over, and surrendered his WBC and Ring championship claims before entering the ring. The Nevada State Athletic Commission fined him $240,000, half of which went to Joel Casamayor, while a further undisclosed payment was agreed to keep the contest alive. Thus, when the old rivals met for the third time at the Mandalay Bay Events Center in Las Vegas on October 7, 2006, the vacant championship could be won only by Casamayor. Victory for Corrales would have left it unclaimed.

Their rivalry stood level at one victory apiece. Casamayor had stopped Corrales after six rounds in October 2003, when damage inside Corrales’s mouth made continuation impossible, and Corrales had gained revenge by split decision five months later. The third meeting came after Corrales had endured a difficult year. His celebrated victory over Castillo in May 2005 had been followed by a fourth-round knockout defeat in their rematch, when Castillo came in overweight, and a proposed third contest was abandoned after Castillo again failed at the scales. Now Corrales had committed the same offence himself. He entered at 40-3, while the 35-year-old Casamayor, a former Olympic champion and an awkward southpaw of long experience, stood at 33-3-1.

Casamayor began cautiously but with the clearer plan. He moved Corrales, touched the body and made the taller man reset before he could establish his right hand. The opening round was quiet enough to draw complaints from the crowd, though the Cuban’s greater activity gave him the advantage. Corrales improved in the second, stepping closer and finding greater success with his left hook. Casamayor answered in the third and fourth by becoming more assertive. His straight left reached the head and body, and when his attacks carried him inside, he tied Corrales up firmly, causing referee Kenny Bayless to warn both men against wrestling.

The fifth produced the contest’s principal dispute. In the closing seconds, Casamayor’s right foot became caught outside Corrales’s left as the Cuban was turning away. Corrales threw a grazing left hook while Casamayor was already losing his balance, and Casamayor’s glove touched the floor. Bayless ruled a knockdown and administered a count, although replays showed that the crossing of the feet had caused the fall. Casamayor protested immediately. The decision gave Corrales a valuable point in a fight that eventually went to a split verdict, but it did not disturb the Cuban for long.

Casamayor regained his rhythm in the sixth, using his quicker feet and straight left to prevent Corrales from applying sustained pressure. A clash of heads around the middle of the contest opened a cut near Corrales’s left eye. Corrales, who appeared soft at the weight and lacked some of his customary sharpness after a year without a contest, nevertheless continued to pursue his opponent. He had a better seventh, landing the right hand and left hook with sufficient force to remind Casamayor of the danger attached to standing still.

The eighth was interrupted when Corrales struck low, and Casamayor was allowed time to recover. Once the action resumed, Corrales landed a heavy legal blow which tested the Cuban’s chin, but Casamayor held his ground and answered. The rounds continued to alternate in character: Casamayor boxed and clinched when he had completed his work, while Corrales pressed forward looking for the larger single punches. Corrales had another useful spell in the ninth, but he never established the continuous attack that had served him in their second meeting.

Casamayor finished the stronger and more accurate man over the last three rounds. He maintained distance when possible, stepped in with the left and smothered Corrales’s replies at close quarters. Corrales remained dangerous and bloodied Casamayor’s nose during the final stages, while the Cuban also developed swelling on the left side of his head. Neither man was in danger of being stopped. Corrales’s effort remained determined to the end, but Casamayor had dictated too many passages and had generally landed the cleaner punches.

The official cards reflected both the closeness of several rounds and the disagreement over how they should be valued. Jerry Roth scored 114-113 for Corrales, but Nobuaki Uratani returned 115-112 and Adalaide Byrd 116-111 for Casamayor, giving the Cuban a split-decision victory. The Associated Press also favoured Casamayor, 116-112. There was no serious injustice in the result. Casamayor had overcome the erroneous knockdown ruling, handled Corrales’s late pressure and completed their rivalry with two victories from three contests. Corrales disputed the verdict but conceded that he would study the recording before judging it finally. He also acknowledged that his days at 135 pounds were finished. The bout proved to be his last at lightweight and his final appearance with trainer Joe Goossen.

I always thought Joel Casamayor was one of the most awkward quality fighters of that era. He could box beautifully when he wanted, but he also knew every little trick, holding, leaning, leading with the head and spoiling your work. Diego Corrales was the opposite. He was tall and rangy, yet preferred fighting at close quarters because that was where his temperament took him.

Their first two fights had produced a win apiece, but Corrales arrived for the decider in poor condition. After rightly condemning José Luis Castillo for missing weight, he came in five pounds heavy himself. There is no dressing that up. It was unprofessional, and he looked soft and flat in the ring.

Casamayor deserved the decision. He controlled the distance, landed the cleaner straight lefts and tied Corrales up whenever the bigger man threatened to build momentum. The fifth-round knockdown against him was nonsense, his feet became tangled, and Corrales barely landed, but he did not allow the bad call to unsettle him. Corrales had moments with the right hand and left hook, yet never sustained his pressure.

It was not a classic like their first meeting, but it settled the argument. Casamayor was the cleverer fighter across the trilogy and proved it again here. Corrales had the greater fire, but Casamayor understood how to make an opponent fight the wrong fight.