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Saturday, 03 June 2006 |
Diego Corrales and Jose Luis Castillo won't fight after all
Saturday's much publicised WBC lightweight title fight in Las Vegas between Diego Corrales and Jose Luis Castillo has been cancelled after Castillo did not make the weight.
The fight could have been held without a title as the prize but Diego Corrales, 28, decided it was too dangerous to fight a heavier weight.
"I have a wife and children and I want to see them grow up," said Diego Corrales, who has lost out on the $1.3m he would have made by fighting Jose Luis Castillo for a third time.
"All I can say is I'm sorry," said Mexican boxer Jose Luis Castillo, 32, who weighed in four times.
"Those are just empty words," said Sacramento-born Diego Corrales, who weighed the 135lb (61kg) limit on his first try. "I wanted to hit him in the mouth."
Jose Luis Castillo could get no closer to the limit than 139.5lb (62.8kg) during his four attempts in two hours and he also failed to make the weight on the last time they were scheduled to fight last October, when Diego Corrales paid the price for going ahead with the bout.
He was defeated on a fourth-round knockout to a boxer who didn't have to make the same sacrifice to make the weight.
On Friday his manager, promoter and trainer all said he shouldn't fight because it was too risky against a boxer who so weighed so much more than him.
"If he got hurt I could never live with myself again," said Diego Corrales' promoter Gary Shaw, and trainer Joe Goossen added: "He (Corrales) drained himself to make 135lb (61kg) and the other guy didn't have to do it."
Jose Luis Castillo's own promoter Bob Arum said he couldn't recall a fight being cancelled under similar circumstances and he agreed with the decision Diego Corrales made.
"I'm mortified and embarrassed by what happened here," he said. "It's a disgrace. If I was Corrales I wouldn't fight either."
Boxing promoters had already sold about 8,000 tickets for the fight, and Bob Arum said he stood to lose $1m from the cancelled bout.
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Last Updated ( Tuesday, 06 June 2006 )
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