Another very good fighter from the late 70's / early 80's showing up on those CBS & ABC boxing specials. Attempted to take the title from greats like Alexis Arquello, Sal Sanchez, Juan La Porte, & Julio Caesar Chavez. Very Competitive, but always fell short.
He was a perennial contender, but an almost complete lack of power really hurt his chances. Laporte was nothing, he was there to be taken but Castillo was by then a little past it. He had nothing at all left by the time of Chavez, and wouldn't have won if he had anyway. Still, classy boxer for sure.
His bouts with Arguello and Sanchez were brilliant. I haven't seen them since they took place, but at the time I felt he was slightly ahead of Arguello on points when he was stopped and the Sanchez fight I believe I scored a draw - but admittedly I need to sit down and score it properly. Let's just say the fight was close. But as salsanchezfan said, he had to have been shot for the LaPorte fight. I totally thought he was going to take that one. I have watched his bout with Chavez a couple of times and I would really recommend anyone to watch that one. You will see six rounds of the cleanest, hard banging shots and counter-shots you will ever see. Despite the fact that you literally see Castillo slowly coming undone it is still a highly enjoyable fight. All in all Castillo was one classy fighter.
I've seen his four championship fights. He looked really good against Arguello and excellent against Sanchez (quite a fight), his fight against LaPorte was absolutly awesome even though he was dominated, I don't think a shot fighter could produre that kind pf effort. It's not like LaPorte wasn't a very good fighter. Not much to say against a prime Chavez. One of the best fighter to never win a world title.
Laporte was not great, but he was very good. He was lazy and not busy enough, but he had elite power and chin. You don't go neck and neck with prime JC Chavez if you are "nothing." You don't destroy a very good Rocky Lockridge if you are "nothing." He even went a full 15 with you hero, Sanchez, when he was still pretty green (around 15 fights). He had the power to hurt Castillo late. Castillo was highly skilled and in today's environment, would win some sort of world title.
