One tough hombre. His turnaround against John David Jackson in their first fight was incredible. One of the great Middleweight title fights and Castro certainly wasn't afraid to face anyone. That said, he was one of the weaker title holders in that amazingly stacked Middleweight division of the late eighties to mid nineties. Jackson never really recovered from that loss to Castro, and Castro took advantage of that to win a decent decision over him when they next met. But aside from that I'm struggling to think of any real high-class opponents Castro beat without some help or good luck. I've not seen his second fight with Reggie Johnson, so maybe I'm doing him a disservice. But I think he and his team got away with murder in the first one, and Reggie beat him by at least 3 rounds or so despite boxing within himself. Jones and Norris proved way too fast and elusive for him (as Jackson had done for most of those nine rounds before getting caught), and even a 46 year old Duran, twenty-seven years and 40 lb after beating Marcel in 1970, managed to split fights with him. No shame in any of this, but the difference in class in some of those fights, particularly the Norris one, was eye-watering. Good fighter, durable dude but one of those guys who benefits from facing so many 'names', which blinds people from the fact that he generally lost to them, and from racking up such a big win:loss ratio against relatively average and padded opposition.
underrated … " Castro's in trouble too right now, we are closing in on the end " . my ass . watch out for Castro's hook !!
