Chucho Castillo

Pat, he doesn't get his just due that's for sure. Chucho came along in a very tough era. He wasn't regarded as overly exciting because he was primarily a counter-puncher. A very thinking counter-puncher. He started out rough and ended up rough, which is why his record isn't the most glossy numbers-wise. But, when one looks at his body of work and his wins over Ruben Olivares, Rafael Herrera, Jesus Pimental, Joe Medel, Bernardo Carraballo, Rogelio Lara, Rafael Ortega and Valdemir Pinto one has to stop and say 'WTF'. I should mention that aside from the Olivares and Herrera wins, his counter-punching exercise performed on the absolutely deadly Jesus Pimental was considered a masterpiece.

 

Me dad rated him as a great counterpuncher. They shared a gym training for the the Olivares and Raul Cruz fights. Me dad always regretted that they didn't spar. I've got some Mexican reports from his early fights and it seems he had some problems with cuts. To be honest though that Mexican top 10 of the 60's was a sharkpool with them all fighting and beating each other. People talk about the black murderers row but that was the Mexican murderers row and Castillo and Olivares were the two that rose to the very top.

 

I agree, Al. What an era! At any time you could look at the top ten and about 8 of them would be Mexicans. And of all the luck this was your Dad's era. I think he would have acquitted himself well had he stuck around in L.A. awhile. I would like to think the west coast crowd would have appreciated some really sharp boxing.

 

I think I've told you before Scar. Parnassus tried to make Rudkin Pimentel as the chief support for Olivares' challenge to Lionel Rose.

 

Here's a nice bit of footage of Lionel Rose and Chucho training for their title fight. http://www.itnsource.com/en/shotlist/RTV/1968/11/20/BGY507060383/?s=lionel+rose

 

Wow, what a fight that would have been! Actually gets the mouth watering. Great training footage too, Al. Thanks.

 

A really savvy, well-schooled guy who was one of the holy trinity of Mexican bantams of the day (one must include Herrera in that mix, I think). Castillo always seemed so much physically smaller than everyone he fought to me for some weird reason. Might be just me, but everyone seemed to tower over him.

 

I always thought he looked small as well but he could beat top featherweights as ell. Just watched the Ernie de la cruz fight the other day. A strong featherwight was De La Cruz and better than his record suggests. He had a sequence of fights 69/70 where he fought Olivares, Rose, Castillo and Ben Villaflor, he must of had a brave manager. Ernie even dropped Ruben and Lionel. Chucho took him apart and it looked like a bantam against a feather. Cruz was a featherweight for the second fight.

 

This is a good fight, I thought Chucho won this https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DG6ka_LqMAw

 

Great tribute McGrain! Do you speak Spanish?