one of the best boxing books that i have read is thomas hausers Lights Out, that centres around billy costellos journey to the wbc light welter title back in 83 - 84. i have always wanted to see costelloo fight? he gained a lot of affection from me even though i read the book in 1998 - 99 how good was he?
He was ok, nothing special. I remember watching his make or break fight with the comebacking A.Arguello back in 84' or 85' . Costello was also trying to rebuild his career and was running his mouth saying things like ..."if this old man beats me...then I should retire" and things like that.Then in rd 4 ...arguello landed that famous right hand and that was it. Costello got up but was stopped about 20secs later. I have it if you're interested. I would personally like to see Costello vs L.Smith ,where smith ko'd him and took the title.
Billy Costello was a solid pro with good skills. He won his title against a very determined Bruce Curry, who sought to overwhelm him with sheer conditioning and toughness, but Costello's superior boxing technique eventually prevailed over Curry's weight trained physicality and Oriental martial arts influenced approach. (Curry disregarded the guidance of his trainer, Jesse Reid.) It looked as though Costello was going to have a long solid stint as WBC light welterweight champion, especially after beating the bloody **** (literally) out of Saoul Mamby. But Lightning Lonnie Smith came off the deck to dethrone Costello in something of an upset, derailing Billy's burgeoning career. On the rebound, he knocked heads with Arguello, also on the rebound from his second loss to Pryor. For three and a half rounds, Costello looked terrific, while Alexis looked absolutely awful, and totally ready to be put out to pasture. A single right hand by Arguello pulled out the match for him (resulting in his final major victory), and permanently knocked Costello out of serious contention, though he never lost again. For as long as he remained prominent, Costello was a favorite of CBS to televise, and as good as he looked against Arguello, another chance might have been expected for him, but the fact of having lost to a clearly deteriorating Arguello with a single shot apparently scuttled his marketability.
Costello was a solid fighter with solid fighting fundamentals. His fight with Lightning Lonnie Smith however proved that Costello could'nt handle speed. Smith absolutely dominated Costello with speed of hand and feet, and then absolutely exploded on Costello with shots poor Billy did not see coming. Costello went down several times in the fight. Jesus Christ, I'm looking at boxrec as I type, and two of the three judges in that fight insanely had Costello ahead. Carol Castellano who had Smith in from 67-63 at the time of stoppage was right on the mark. I'm wondering what happened to Costello???? After his KO loss to Arguello (no shame there) he retired for over 6 years and then made a comeback......... After the Arguello loss in 1986 he did'nt fight till 92'.....he fought only 9 times from 92' to 99' and did'nt lose a fight in that span...... If Costello was fighting today with that winning streak, he'd have gotten at least a couple of title shots!
There's a story to that Arguello-Costello fight...... .....the Billy Costello team complained about the hand wraps of Alexis Arguello. Arguello who was very meticulous and took his time wrapping his own hands was furious that the commision was asking him to hurriedly rewrap his hands. There was a point during CBS's sports programming that they announced that Arguello was threatening to pull out of the fight if he was made to rewrap....... To make a long story short, Arguello was forced to rewrap, and he spent the first 3 rounds with Costello fighting mad and looking for a single shot to knock Costello's head off....... Arguello came out more focused in the 4th and pushed Costello to the ropes by throwing combinations to the head and body, their was a slight lull in the action.....both fighters threw right hands, and guess which one landed first?????:yep I agree, Arguello was'nt the same fighter he had been pre-Pryor, but he was far from being shot imo. The winner of Arguello-Costello was supposed to catapult them into a title shot, but it turns out if memory serves me that some kind of blemish turned up in Arguello's brain MRI that worried him and he decided to retire after the Costello fight. It's too bad, because at that point in 1986, Aarron Pryor was heavily a lost soul heavily doping himself up and a lost cause really..... Arguello imo would have easily have beaten the likes of Lonnie Smith and Rene Arredondo who had their stints as champions during that time.
I thought Billy was good, but wanted Howard Davis Jr. to fight him, so he could win that elusive title.
Sal said in here ages ago he had an absolutely shocking chin, and i have no reason to doubt him at all. A real weakness apparently.
Costello was indeed a real staple of CBS sports back then. I think they liked him because he was usually in action fights (his defense against Ronnie Shields was a terrific scrap, both fighters down in the second round) and his fights usually went a number of rounds. All three of his title defenses went the distance. He was solid technically, but very wooden, I thought. Had his chin sticking out there too much as well, and he didn't have the beard to absorb much, as John mentioned here.
Exactly what Hitman said-"okay". but man, talk about having bad days. The Smith fight was the mother of all bad days. Smith looked like a lunatic with his eyes popping out. I thought, this man is in some serious trouble! At the press conference, well..we don't have to go into that.
