Wednesday at the Mandalay Bay Casino in Las Vegas, Jose Luis Castillo, Diego Corrales and their extensive posses announced their May 7th Showtime fight for the WBC/WBO Lightweight Championship. The fight will be twelve-rounds, but according to all parties involved, there’s no chance the fight will go the distance. Given the recent history of both fighters, it’s entirely believable that they’re right when they make that prediction.

Diego Corrales, 39-2-0-32, returned to the ring in 2003 after a two-year hiatus due to personal problems, including a jail stint for domestic abuse, and has worked his way back up to being a feared contender, going 7-0 with 6 knockouts. On his way back up the rankings, he captured the WBO Junior Lightweight Title from Joel Casamayor in March of 2004 and the WBO Lightweight Title from Acelino Freitas in August of 2004. But previous to the Castillo fight, Corrales will have been outside of the ring for a total of nine months. Management issues and difficulty setting the fight kept him sidelined and in training while Castillo continued to fight competitively.

Sounds like a lot to deal with, doesn’t it? An important potential turning point in a comeback campaign in a huge Showtime fight with another lightweight power puncher, combined with nine months of inactivity and tons of questions about management problems and issues that swirled around the construction of his new management team? Camp Corrales doesn’t seem worried, In fact, they seem as confident as could be. Corrales promoter Gary Shaw is the leader of the pack, assuring a knockout victory for Corrales. Corrales’ family is confident as well. Wife Michelle knows it will be a tough fight but assures that Diego “extremely focused and will show up to get the win.” Corrales’ manager James Prince paints the most vivid picture, however, letting Castillo know that “Castillo reminds (him) of a tough steak, and Diego is going to show up with a meat tenderizer.” The word from Corrales training camp? They think the nine-month layoff will be an advantage, giving them lots of time to spar and create a game plan.

Corrales is a fantastic boxer to watch. He throws a million punches from all angles and is in peak physical condition. He also has four inches of height over Castillo and all the reach advantages that come with that. He seems to finally be clear of the personal and managerial problems that have been pointed to as the things that held him back in the past, but that remains to be seen on May 7th. Corrales has the ability to dominate Castillo if the circumstances are right. The question is: Are the circumstances right or will he have problems when Castillo tries to turn this into an inside fight? More importantly, can Corrales take Castillo’s hard punches?

While Corrales was stuck in a nine-month holding pattern, Castillo, 52-6-1-46, was blazing through opponents, including a December defense of his WBC Lightweight title against Joel Casamayor and a TKO title defense just weeks ago on March 5th against Julio Diaz. Castillo is a tough-nosed Mexican fighter who likes the action, but even he admitted at Wednesday’s press conference that the Corrales fight comes closely on the heels of his December and March fights. Says Castillo, “I’d like to take a rest, but this is my job.”

Rest or no rest, Castillo seems ready to go. Perhaps buoyed by the March 5th win, Team Castillo, led by legendary promoter Bob Arum, are predicting their own knockout. As Castillo says, “Corrales is a very strong fighter, but he stands right in front of you. He cannot take a punch. It will be a knockout fight.” Castillo is certainly counting on using his fast-paced style to get inside on the taller Corrales and work to the body. He also has recent experience against top opposition, fighting higher caliber fighters while Corrales was taking on weaker competition to work his way back into contention. And unlike Corrales, who went down several times against Mayweather, Castillo has never gone down. Downsides? If Corrales can leverage his reach to do damage to Castillo’s face, Castillo’s propensity to get cut could be the fight decider – all of Castillo’s losses inside the distance have been due to excessive bleeding. And watch out for the 10th round – three of Castillo’s six losses happened there.

Believe it or not, Gary Shaw and Bob Arum said it best on Wednesday at the Mandalay Bay. Said Gary Shaw, “To the boxing reformers out there, all that counts is great fighters fighting other great fighters…that will reform the sport.” Bob Arum followed up with, “These guys come to play. On May 7th, everybody who knows boxing knows that this will be a classic bout.”

And it probably will be. The hard-hitting, high speed style of both fighters, combined with the significant differences in how they fight and how they spent the twelve months before this fight? That’s exciting story telling. Let’s hope the fight lives up to the potential. In the meantime, let’s hope Castillo finds some time to rest and Corrales stays focused. After all, as Castillo said, it is their job.

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