Diego Corrales

By Robert Morales

Lightweight champion Diego Corrales isn't that much different than
Ike and Tina Turner were in 1971, when they did a re-make of
Creedence Clearwater Revival's 1969 hit "Proud Mary."

Some of the lyrics went like this: "Every now and then I think you
might like to hear something from us nice and easy. But there's just
one thing. You see, we never do nothing nice and easy."

At that point, the song goes from slow-paced to the break-neck
speed at which Ike and Tina Turner were accustomed to recording.

So, it was no big bombshell to hear where Corrales wants to be in
the next year - in the ring duking it out with welterweight champion
Antonio Margarito.

"I want to fight Margarito, and I would like to fight Ricky
Hatton," Corrales said prior to last Saturday's card at Staples
Center that featured Sam Peter defeating James Toney in a heavyweight
fight. "I don't care about doing anything that is easygoing.

"I want something that is going to create a spark in the sport. I
feel like that is why I have the fans that I do."

Indeed, Corrales (40-3, 33 KOs) is not about taking the easy way
out. And the proof is in the pudding, so to speak. His third
scheduled fight with Jose Luis Castillo was canceled last June when
Castillo failed to make the 135-pound weight limit.

So, who does he sign to fight after that fiasco? Joel Casamayor on
Oct. 7 at Mandalay Bay in Las Vegas.

It doesn't matter that Casamayor is now 35. He is one mean hombre,
and a very dirty fighter. Corrales, of course, knows all about him
since they have fought twice before.

Casamayor stopped Corrales in the sixth round in October 2003 at
Mandalay Bay. Corrales was down twice in that fight and Casamayor was
decked once. Corrales was not allowed to answer the bell for the
seventh round because of two deep cuts on his tongue.

In a rematch five months later in Mashantucket, Conn., Corrales
won a hard-fought split decision in another grueling battle.

And, needless to say, the two brutal fights with Castillo were
still to come. Corrales stopped Castillo in the 10th round in one of
the all-time great slugfests in May 2005. Castillo then came back to
knock out Corrales in the fourth round in a rematch last October.

That victory by Castillo was tainted, however, as he missed making
weight for the first of two times. Corrales took his two world title
belts off the table, agreed to a non-title fight and had the boom
lowered on him by a fighter who did not kill himself the way Corrales
did to make the weight.

Gary Shaw, who promotes Corrales, said he is not surprised in the
least at the way Corrales conducts his career.

"He has been the most pleasurable fighter because he never asks
any questions about the opponent," Shaw said of Corrales, who will
defend his World Boxing Council lightweight title against Casamayor.
"Just bring him the very best. He doesn't care if they're tall,
short, southpaw, if they have three hands.

"You gotta give a fighter like that credit. And that should be, to
me, Diego Corrales' legacy. It's great to be able to represent
someone that you know you have the freedom to talk to anyone, that
he'll fight them, and even the weight doesn't make a difference."

Thus, Shaw said that Corrales wanting to move to 140 and then 147
is not one bit shocking. He said that if he called Corrales one day
with a defining fight at 154, he said he would expect Corrales to
say, "Yes."

Ricardo Jimenez is a spokesman for Top Rank Inc., which promotes
Margarito, the fighter many have of late been avoiding. He was
shocked to hear that Corrales would want to move up to fight a
monster like Margarito.

But if Corrales were to do his best Bugs Bunny impression, his
reply to Jimenez would be something like, "He don't know me very
well, do he?"

"I know everybody is trying to avoid Margarito," said Corrales,
29. "And I know that some time next year, I will be there (at
welterweight)."

Interestingly, Shaw said he also wants to see how a few other
things might develop for Corrales while he is still at lightweight.
For example, Shaw wants to see if the winner of the Rocky
Juarez-Marco Antonio Barrera super featherweight rematch Sept. 16
might want to move up to lightweight. Erik Morales, who has fought at
lightweight but is currently at super featherweight, is another
possibility.

Meanwhile, both Corrales and Shaw were still upset at what they
perceived as little or no punishment recently handed down Castillo
for missing weight for what was supposed to be their third fight on
June 3.

Castillo twice weighed in at 139 ½ pounds on June 2, 4 ½ pounds
over the lightweight limit. Having been burned once before by
agreeing to a non-title fight, this time Corrales understandably
refused to fight.

Shaw and Corrales have since filed multi-million dollar lawsuits
against Castillo and his promoter, Bob Arum. But the Nevada State
Athletic Commission seemed to go light on Castillo, fining him the
maximum $250,000, but suspending him only through the rest of the
year.

"The Nevada commission is the best on the planet," said Corrales,
but I don't think they showed that with this decision."

Said Shaw: "I didn't have any pre-set judgments in my mind, but to
just sit somebody until the end of the year, to me, he wasn't
fighting anyway. So that wasn't really a punishment."