It looked like another long night for Jose Luis Castillo, Joel Casamayor showed up with significant energy and more intestinal fortitude than we’ve seen in years. Since Casamayor’s embarrassing defeat to Acelino Freitas a ways back, I believed his career was about done (especially after seeing his performances in two tough fights with hard punching Diego Corrales).

With 'Hands of Stone' in his corner (the great Roberto Duran), Casamayor started quickly and made the champion look slow and old (remember Castillo vs. Floyd Mayweather II). Castillo appeared to be “Tight and Cold” for the first 3 rounds and started coming to life in rounds 4 and 5. As expected, Castillo kept applying pressure on Casamayor and reaped what I consider to be mixed benefits (taking a lot of punishment, looking uncoordinated but landing some significant body shots).

Castillo’s physical advantage (naturally stronger and larger than natural 130 pounder Casamayor) started becoming apparent in the middle rounds, even though Casamayor’s straight left hand found a home in the middle of  his opponent's face.

Castillo’s incessant  frontal facing style and ability to stay undisturbed by Casamayor’s attack, gave him rounds 6 to 11 with the final round up for grabs (sitting at ringside, Casamayor landed more accurate shots, with Castillo landing some good hooks on the inside). I scored the fight 6-6 with the final round going to Jose Luis Castillo - A draw (not far from the official split decision).

After seeing the labored effort that Castillo mustered up against light punching Joel Casamayor, I feel he’ll have his hands full if a match with Diego Corrales is ever made (JLC is too slow and is too easy of a target).

12-06-2004

 

Brought to you by Saratogamist copyright 2001-2004