By Jim Cawkwell (photo by Chris Farina/Top Rank)

 

Earlier this year, thousands of boxing fans, quick to assume and slow to apply reason, demonized Jose Luis Castillo. Now realizing that he is no wretched scoundrel apt to cowardice, they are forced to reassess their ravaging of his legacy by the very man they deemed the ultimate victim of Castillo’s supposed schemes. Diego Corrales asked his body to perform the impossible, and it failed. Will hypocrisy reign as Corrales is considered redeemable, or, as with Castillo, will they seek to make him an outcast?

 

This is not a character assassination of Diego Corrales. Some of us are not yet naïve enough to believe that a man capable of risking his life for the betterment of his family can become a coward in an instant. Nor are we bitter enough to tear that man’s character to pieces simply because he prevented us from witnessing the gruesome spectacle we expected.

 

We leave that to such exalted members of the boxing industry as the broadcast team at Showtime, who unashamedly went about the task of destroying Castillo before millions of viewers this past June.

 

Men with no idea of the sacrifice required to become and remain not only a champion, but one of the world’s greatest fighters, decided to savage Castillo’s reputation; willfully neglecting his courage that raised not only his own stature, but also that of boxing, and by virtue of association, Showtime itself.

 

These people, along with the millions whose perceptions they influenced, or fueled into an irrational blaze, must now question their own judgment because of the failure of the man in whose heroics they found comfort when Castillo’s supposed misdemeanor robbed them of their pound of flesh.

 

That is because in reality, not the tapestry of fabrications woven by spin doctors and those that stand to profit, one rule must apply to all.

 

Interviewer Jim Gray put some hard questions to Corrales after the fight, but not wishing to look like complete fools, Showtime elected not to spend the entirety of Saturday evening’s broadcast destroying the legacy of Diego Corrales as wantonly as they did Castillo’s.

 

To this day, experienced fight writers that were present at the event, swear that Castillo never intended to make weight. This is not only impossible, but entirely irrational and irresponsible.

 

Journalists holding positions on the frontlines of historic occasions such as these should report the facts in a professional manner. That they allow their own preferences to dictate their work sets a dangerous precedent and helps this sport further along in its descent.

 

Of course, Corrales’ supporters have already begun to dissemble his failure. Unwilling to accept their fault at the over-zealous damnation of Castillo, many feign ignorance and attempt to differentiate Corrales’ fault from his unwitting predecessor.

 

According to them, Castillo deserves blame because he failed to make weight three consecutive times. This proves only that his grave struggle with the issue came to light sooner. By Corrales’ own admission, at twenty-eight-years-old, his body just gave in; is it so difficult to conceive of Castillo suffering the same fate aged thirty-three?

 

Most disturbing is the ease in which people arrived at the worst possible conclusion about Castillo. Lost to everyone was the blatant evidence that he had suffered in the weight making process for the previous two years. Instead, sinister theories emanated throughout the boxing world, branding Castillo a coward that dare not face Corrales a third time without a scrap of supporting evidence. They dared to argue that Castillo needed such unfair leverage, despite the obvious physical superiority he held over Corrales in their first meeting.

 

They said that his was an infraction worthy of complete and total banishment from the boxing community; that such a wretch has no place within the bounds of a business in which decent men struggled to forge themselves into fighting machines. Some lived to prosper, others died into martyrdom, but all remained as part of a most sacred brotherhood. Some people wished to see Castillo excommunicated from that which he had made his home.

 

Why?

 

Because he had the effrontery to smile while simply accepting his failure, knowing it would cost him the most, though there was no more he could do. Because he did not force the tears and show the contrition that boxing fans, media and networks alike felt he owed them. The day Castillo concedes his own weakness with relish and begs Corrales’ forgiveness is the day that Erik Morales accepts an invitation to the Barrera household for afternoon tea.

 

Are we to accept Corrales’ excuses and remorse simply because we see his tears and he explains himself to us in plain English?

 

Do all of Corrales’ commendable deeds now become mere footnotes to this most recent, notorious chapter?

 

It seems that the masses have chosen ignorance of a fighter’s struggle until the moment it infringes upon their own needs.

 

Fighters owe us nothing. Knowing but a fraction of their sacrifice is to understand the honor it is to watch their careers unfold. Every broken rib; every drop of blood spilt; every punch that may contribute to their failing health in later life; lack of mobility, or even the onset of debilitations as severe as Parkinson’s Disease are not hazards for those of us that watch from the periphery.

 

Such threats accompany the life of a fighter from its beginning to its end. They understand this, and remain fighters regardless of the pittance they earn compared to the magnitude of their risk and in contrast to the rest of the sport’s world. Debt? We could never begin to repay that which we have accrued throughout decades of watching these men agonize for our entertainment.

 

Honorable as that sounds, it is deceived by the ineptitude of those who fail to define and enforce parameters to preserve the fighters and elevate the sport. Solutions are suggested but never implemented. Sanctioning bodies inundate us with reminders of their policies towards the weight making process, and still they are found impotent, as fighters continue to struggle; training to lose weight rather than training to fight as hard as they might.

 

Corrales’ promoter, Gary Shaw, claimed in the aftermath of the aborted Castillo-Corrales fight, that his priority is to his fighter, while claiming inadequate monitoring on the part of Castillo’s handlers. How intense was Shaw’s watch over his fighter as the weeks dwindled away and Corrales underwent inhuman deprivations in order to fulfill his obligation?

 

Shaw claims to care so much about the great boxing fans around the world; enough to emerge from, by his own description, a disgrace to boxing, only to become the chief promoter of a practically identical one. Playing the victim, Shaw seemed to delight in branding Top Rank also as a disgrace to boxing. In light of recent developments, where does that leave his company?

 

It was forecast that for the third meeting with Casamayor, Corrales would only be able to perform at a mere fraction of his actual capacity because of the extremity of his endeavors to make the weight. South of heavyweight, practically all fighters fight at but a percentage of that which they are capable. It’s time to open discussions for change.

 

The timing of weigh-ins is questionable. Fighters need adequate time to re-hydrate themselves after the weigh-in and recover for the fight. But too much time would allow their weight to stray even further out of control. Depending on their metabolism, one fighter might put on a little weight, another a lot; perhaps enough to be deadly.

 

We saw the importance of this earlier this year, as promoter Bob Arum bought Miguel Cotto a potential lifeline by scheduling the weigh-in for his fight with Paul Malignaggi earlier than the usual time. This granted Cotto a few precious hours’ respite from the struggle he’d faced to make his contracted weight.

 

When the task of preparing oneself for a fight becomes almost as harrowing, and certainly as newsworthy as the fight itself, something must be done. This year, boxing has seen its share of weight controversies. This is no anomaly.

 

But as ever, the business of boxing goes on, and fighters, facing increased pressures compounding their already deadly environment, continue to make money for the very people whose primary concern should be to prevent them from facing dangers that exceed that which is part of the territory.

 

Until a basic foundation is organized, we face a long journey to the day when the sport we love will be ready to shed the skin of chaos it shows to the world.

 

Contact Jim Cawkwell at jimcawkwell@yahoo.co.uk