How Good Was Jose Luis Castillo At His Best?

Going into the first fight with Chico it looked like the winner, whichever fighter that was, would usher in the next era of dominance at lightweight, following Mosley's move up. Castillo had his two performances against Mayweather and Stevie Johnston, who was highly regarded, as well as his wins over Cesar Bazan, Juan Lazcano, Julio Diaz, and Casamayor. Meanwhile, Corrales had crazy momentum with his sensational win over Freitas.

Unfortunately, as we all know neither fighter really recovered from that fight.

In retrospect, Castillo was more hampered by dramatic weight cutting than anything else. Its telling that between the second loss to Floyd and his ressurrection against Lazcano, he fought as high as junior middleweight. Tat kind of strain is very unhealthy and it sadly shortened what could have been a far more glorious career.

At his best though, Castillo was frighteningly effective. He didn't really come into his own until his second reign imo. By then he was more effective against boxers. The wins over Lazcano and Diaz were especially impressive, showcasing his punch variety, underrated defense, accuracy, and stamina. He was an atg body puncher two, and nearly every one of his second reign opponents reported passing blood for several days or more after the fights.

As I said, it was a shame he burnt out from the weight cutting. I would have loved to see him mix it up with guys like Baby Bull Diaz, Jesus Chavez, Freitas, Campbell, and even a Casamayor rematch. Heck, throw in bouts with Famoso Hernandez or David Diaz if you like. At any rate, with proper guidance and nutrition he could have established himself as one of the top 5 post-Duran lightweights.

 

I'm glad the reply didn't go unappreciated.

You didn't have to be a fan of Castillo to find his loss to Hatton depressing. JLC had looked stiff and gaunt in his wins over Rolando Reyes and Herman Ngoudjo and before the Hatton bout he basically admitted he was just fighting for money.

He's still fighting for money, because Corrales' widow won a massive lawsuit (9 million I think) against Castillo for failing to make weight for the third fight with Corrales. She sued him because the fight falling through cost her family millions of dollars. The worst part is that she was seperated from Diego at the time of his death. Indeed she was expected to file for divorce later in 2007, so she doesn't deserve any of the money. Yes, Castillo's failure on the scales cost the Corrales' a lot, but forcing a shot fighter to risk permanent brain damage is outrageous. But that money should all go straight to Diego's kids.

 

The Funny Man 7. I gotta give you praise for your first response. It was thinking along those line but you covered everything I was going to say.

I thought he deserved the first bout against Mayweather.

 

The first time I saw Castillo, he was fighting the walk-out bout after Chavez vs Gamache. He looked real good. If I had been offered the opportunity to manage any fighter on that card- which also included Enrique Sanchez and, if my memory is correct, Erik Morales- based on how they looked that night it would have been Castillo, hands down.

 

Funny man has basically covered it all, but I'll just add that I don't believe he was "vulnerable" in the traditional sense until the time of the first Corrales fight.

I think I would be correct in saying that his first four losses (Soto, Jauregui x 2, and Alvarez) were all on cuts.

Corrales just had a bit too much firepower for him, and I believe Castillo's long-term punch resistance suffered as a result of that fight. Before that he could certainly take a punch, just had problems with bad cuts (which might well be a knock-on effect of the massive weight draining he put his body through, and also possibly all those tough sparring sessions with Chavez and others)

 

JLC did lose those four fights on cuts, but from what I've heard he was completely ****ed up, basically a few punches from ending up like Benny Paret, when the ref stepped in for the Soto stoppage, so it wouldn't be true to say he only lost that fight because of thin skin.

But Soto was a world class guy with lots of experience while Castillo was green and his kidney's must have been fried at 126. And although Jauregui had an ugly record, he was a demon when he was on form, so its hard to hold tha loss against JLC. The loss to Alvarez is the real enigma, since Alvarez was at best a high end journeyman or a very low end fringe contender, depending whether you're a glass half full or half empty kind of guy.