Is Castillo The Scapegoat For A Bigger Problem?

[BIGPOPPAPUMP]

Jose Luis Castillo is being portrayed by some as a man who intentionally deceived his opponent and the sport of boxing for some sort of personal gain or another. Everybody is shocked that he showed up weighing 140 pounds for his Lightweight title (135-pound division) fight with Diego Corrales. Why the shock? Why the outrage? He did just about the exact same thing last year when he weighed in at 138 pounds for last year’s Lightweight title fight with Corrales. [details]

[DLT]

I dont know man, this seems a littile to conveniant of a excuse for Castillo and you make him sound like a victim. You say that Chico is making this low weight for years and shouldve moved up but Castillo has also made this same weight for years and he is always bigger then every guy he fights at lightweight.

Then he fights Chico and loses and now all of assudden he conveiantly cant make the weight anymore? Is it possible? Sure, but it just sounds fishy when you do it after you lost.

Then you make it sound like he was forced to have this fight at 135 when he didnt want it and that is true but he should be forced because he didnt make it last time, the fight went on, and he killed Chico who was the Champ. Why should Chico cut him a break and make the fight at 140 when he had already beaten Castillo once and lost the 2nd time to a guy who didnt make the weight for the 1st time ever and Chico still fought him because he didnt want to let the fans down. To me, the least Castillo could do was rematch him again at 135. If not, then it wouldve been like Castillo is being rewarded for not making weight and it wouldve been like Castillo was the victim in the 2nd fight.

Should the weight rules be changes? Probally so but I dont want to hear that for a guy like Castillo who makes his living beating up on guys who are always much smaller then him and then people try to make him out to be a victim for not making the weight at a weight he always made before until he lost to Chico?

I get what your saying but all Im saying that no way in hell it wouldve been fair to have this fight at 140 after what happened in fights 1 & 2 with Chico winning and then losing because he fought a bigger Castillo just for the fans. He cut Castillo the break so why are people trying to make it sound like Castillo is the one cutting Chico a break?

The answer to this is that if we could have it all back then fight 2 wouldve went like fight 3 and wouldnt have happened. Then they might couldve had a fight 2 at 140 a year or 2 later but now everything is screwed up. I think its 50/50 in that Castillo really tried everything possible and couldnt make it or he just didnt try enough but he's not going to get the benefit of the doubt when this happeneds after he lost and he's not going to get the benefit when he's a guy who always outweights his opponent by doulb digits most of the time

[DLT]

Also, I agree with you on the weight thing but realistically, what can be done about it? You could make fighters weigh in just one day before the fight but alot of guy will still try to drain and you could make guys weigh in the day of the fight and I think you still may get alot of idiots trying to drain.

I think they should try one of them though. Either the day of or the day before but then you run a risk of having to cancle fights very late if guys cant make weight and that would cause alot of problems with angry fans and TV companies

[burglar]

Jose Luis Castillo is being portrayed by some as a man who intentionally deceived his opponent and the sport of boxing for some sort of personal gain or another. Everybody is shocked that he showed up weighing 140 pounds for his Lightweight title (135-pound division) fight with Diego Corrales. Why the shock? Why the outrage? He did just about the exact same thing last year when he weighed in at 138 pounds for last year’s Lightweight title fight with Corrales. [details]

This my friends,is what I call objective writing.Kudos to the writer.

We always put the blame to fighters, everytime something wrong crops up.We always blame them.

What about Arum? Assuming arguendo that he was duped into thinkin that Castillo was safely makin the weight,is it not his business to see to it that the reports given to him were true and accurate? He should have and he is expected to know.He is earning a lot of money from Castillo's fights isn't it?

What about the sanctioning bodies? They too are earning alot of money from fights such as this.They could have at least postponed the fight much earlier on.It could have minimized the damaged it had made once the fight is cancelled.

Weight problem is always an issue in boxing.But what else is new? Not a few people are spending thousands and perhaps milllions just to lose weight.

I like Castillo as well as Corrales for giving us fans, matches in our lifetime which we could cherish for as long as we live.
So much so that I am , what was the word,"DISGUSTED".... by people and organizations who suck every drop of blood the boxers shed and "VICTIMIZE" prizefighters hard-earned money.

[LoftyDog]

There is enough blame to go around: Arum, sactioning body, JLC's trainner/camp? etc., but that doesn't excuse JLC for not making weight. There has to be some sort of personal accountability. Warnings about his weight were ignored but that does not make it ok for him not to make weight. He's an experianced professional fighter, there is no excuse for not making weight by 5 pounds, especilly when he didn't make it last time he fought Corrales and how it was the last fight of a hyped and popular trilogy that now may never happen.

[PunchDrunk]

This article is such bull****. Facts are that Castillo signed a contract to fight at 135 and failed to make the weight TWICE. That is on him, and him alone.

[ophqui]

Well, your other option is pre-fight weigh ins, and the fact is this would result in far more ring deaths as fighters actually attempt to fight whilst dehydrated. The only concievable option i can think of is some kind of blood test or something that measures whether fighters are dehydrating/starving themselves to make weight, and then not allowing them to fight, although i think this would be too big a risk for promoiters who would see many more cancelled fights, and since they basically own the governing bodies i cant see any new rules being passed that would have a negative effect on the promoters.

Personally i think that Castillo signed a contract and should have lived up to it, regardless of how nonsensical the rules may seem, the facct is he put his name on the dotted line, promised the promoters, Corrales and the fans that he would do something, and then didnt even attempt to do it. He should be punished to the fullest extent.

[Red_Menace]

I don't think it would be acceptable to take the blame completely of Castillo's shoulders, but you can't let Arum and the WBC get away from any responsibility in this monumental screwup. The establishment has to improve in many areas if boxing wants to win back fans.

[kallsop]

Castillo fought at 135 12 months ago. He could fight at 135 again if he chose to go through the pain of making weight.

Castillo signed to fight at 135 and that's what was expected of him. Perhaps he really believed he could make 135, but at some moment in the last month it became a choice by Castillo that he wasn't going to put in the effort to make 135. He cheated the pre fight weight monitoring program and came in to the weigh in with absolutely no change of making 135. Do you think the taller Corrales can easily make 135, or does he go the exta mile to make that weight?

Bottom line - Castillo cheated the fans, disrespected Corrales and humiliated the WBC and Arum/Top Rank. The only defense by Castillo can be that he was dumb enough to sign to fight at 135 knowing that he can't, or won't, make that weight. He has nobody but himself to blame.

[Left2body]

This article trys to lead us into the Castillo is a victim alley. NSAC said they didn't recieve any indication that Castillo didn't meet a weight goal 30 days before the fight. Bod Arum concers with this. Him stating that the WBC said that Castillo couldn't make weight is purely SPECULATION.

Say what you wan't about Bob Arum but he loses more money by Canceling the fight the day before than if he had cancelled 30days before. Most promoting and advertisment is done the closer the fight is. This doesn't even touch upon possible law suits that Arum will likely face from Sponsors and Casinos.

Also the HEALTH has been distorted by this Writer. First off Corrales health issue is genuine. He could be seriously hurt by a larger fighter as was shown in fight 2.

This health risk was brought on by Castillo not by Corrales onto himself. In Castillo not making weight a fight would possibly endanger Corrales. Now who is endangering Castillo's health other than himself? If you feel that your health is an issue at a weight then move up.....BUT dont decide to fight smaller guys and take there health in your hands.

Now, I'll even play along with the writer for a little bit and say that Castillo did miss a weight goal and knew 30 days out that he wasn't gonna make 135lbs. Then why not contact Corrales and make a catch weight? Atleast if they both fought at 139.5 it would be even and not a huge disadvantage for Corrales to go on with the fight.

*For note I do know what its like to drain and dehydrate. 4 wrestling city team championships. 2 City individual championships and placed in states twice.