Jose Luis Castillo turns 50 today. ‘El Temible’ lived up to his nickname during a staggering 24–year ring career. His moniker translates as “fearsome” and boy was the Mexican ever fearsome. Castillo has unfairly become defined by his high profile defeats. Two points losses to Floyd Mayweather. That unforgettable comeback knockout from Diego Corrales. The career-best body shot Ricky Hatton levelled him with. But those defeats do not tell the whole story. Far from it.
The Empalme-born pugilist came up the hard way. Mexican boxing in the 1990s was not a place to pad a record. Turning over as a pro at the age of 17, Castillo fought future world champion Cesar Soto while still a teenager. He was stopped in two rounds for the Mexican featherweight title, a belt he would compete for the following year against another future world king in Javier Jauregui. The education was swift and brutal, with Jauregeui knocking Castillo out in ten rounds. But the toughness Jose was forced to build in his formative years would stand him in good stead when he hit the big time.
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Jauregui would defeat Castillo in the same round for the same belt two years later. But the ‘Fearsome’ one would finally win the Mexican featherweight title in 1997, beating Rafael Olvera in seven rounds in Ciudad Juarez. A move to super featherweight was premature, with the Mexican champion at 130lbs, Julio Alvarez, stopping Castillo in the tenth round of a title challenge. It would be four years and 13 fights before he tasted defeat again.
Putting together a hot streak of form, Castillo stopped four of his next five opponents before a 1999 bout with the legendary Jorge Paez. ‘El Maromero’ was coming off a defeat to Augie Sanchez, but the former two-weight world champion still represented the toughest challenge of Castillo’s career so far. But the younger man triumphed, stopping Paez in five rounds for the lightly-regarded IBA super featherweight championship. Castillo had finally announced himself on the world stage, emerging from the school of hard knocks.
The following year he fought Stevie Johnston twice for the WBC lightweight title. Castillo beat the champion by majority decision in their first meeting before retaining the belt with a majority draw in the rematch. After a further two successful defences, Castillo would step into a bout and a rivalry that would define his career.
Like Castillo, Floyd Mayweather was a fighter who had come up from the lower weights to land at lightweight. An unbeaten WBC super featherweight champion with eight defences to his name, the time was now for ‘Pretty Boy’ to challenge the 130-pound elite. Castillo had certainly proven himself deserving of that tag.
The two met at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas in April 2002. The WBC and The Ring titles were on the line. Castillo started slow, needing most of the first half of the fight to figure out the unique style of the elusive Mayweather. But once he had the measure of his man, the Mexican was superb. Pounding away at Floyd’s body slowed the challenger down, while intelligent pressure took away many of Mayweather’s gifts. Castillo finished the fight strongly, with Mayweather looking as uncomfortable as he ever would in a prize ring.
Unfortunately the judges could not be swayed. Mayweather received a unanimous decision in his favour, though it was roundly booed by the Nevada masses. The press row thought Mayweather nicked it while unofficial scorer Harold Lederman scored the bout in Castillo’s favour on the television broadcast. With opinion split, a rematch was agreed upon for December of the same year.
The second time round, Mayweather left little doubt. He received another unanimous decision for his efforts, but his speed, jab and timing made his victory clearer than the first had been. Castillo was beaten and belt-less, though he emerged from 24 rounds with the greatest fighter of his generation with plenty of credit.
Three post-Floyd victories put ‘El Temible’ in line for another title shot. Mayweather had vacated his old titles to pursue a campaign up at light welterweight. Castillo was matched with fellow Mexican Juan ‘The Hispanic Causing Panic’ Lazcano for the WBC and The Ring titles.
Castillo reclaimed what he felt he’d never lost, scoring a decision win over Lazcano. From there, the Mexican great added the scalps of the very capable Julio Diaz and the decorated Joel Casamayor to his resume. These victories put him in line for a unification fight with WBO boss Diego Corrales. The bout would change not only the careers of the men involved, but their lives.
Their 2005 meeting is considered perhaps the greatest fight of all time. The ferocity, drama and Rocky-film ending has seen this bout enshrined in boxing folklore. From minute one, the combatants seemed to fight adhering to an unspoken agreement not to take a step back. Never mind a phone booth, this fight could have taken place with each man’s lead-foot touching corners of the same postage stamp.
The blows they exchanged were bracing and vicious, with each man wearing the scars, blood and swelling of war. Corrales’ eye throbbed shut under Castillo’s wanton destruction. Then Diego gave Jose Luis a shiner to match. The violence was almost communal, as if each man were cooperating to bring about mutually-assured destruction.
Castillo swung his fists until victory looked guaranteed. Just under 30 seconds into round ten, Castillo clubbed Corrales to the canvas. The WBO kingpin spat out his mouthguard and rose at eight. The seconds it took to replace his gumshield delayed the restart further, buying valuable recovery time. At the resumption, Corrales clobbered our subject with a sublime and serrated right hand. Castillo backed off and was consumed by Corrales’ pressure, being knocked out while still standing. Corrales had unified the titles and pulled off a comeback that Lazarus himself would have derided as improbable.
While Castillo had lost, his stock had never been higher. The bout instantly entered the conversation surrounding boxing’s best-ever fights. Both men were the talk of the sport for their gallant efforts and rightly so. In terms of international profile, this fight did more for Castillo than any of his excellent victories.
But still that competitive edge nagged away at Castillo. The plaudits from a heroic defeat were not enough to sustain him. A rematch was set for the end of the year. But like a perfectly-formed piece of cinema or a blistering debut album, their nail-biting original should have been left alone. Castillo came in a pound-and-a-half over the agreed lightweight limit and refused to lose the excess. This ultimately swayed the fight, which was exhilarating while it lasted, but ended with a Castillo knockout win in the fourth round. A trilogy bout was arranged but fell apart on the scales, with Castillo once again coming in overweight and with Corrales unwilling to go in at such a disadvantage for a second time.
A split decision win over Herman Ngoudjo put Castillo back into title contention, this time up at light welterweight. But that victory would prove to be the last world-level win of his career. The Ring champion Ricky Hatton stopped Castillo in four rounds with one of the all-time great body shots to end the Mexican’s run as an elite fighter.
Castillo fought on, going 11-5 in his 16 fights after Hatton. The indications were there that he had held on too long when Jorge Paez Jr decisioned him in 2011. Castillo’s breakout win had come against his conqueror's father 12 years before. A fifth-round TKO loss to Ruslan Provodnikov tolled the final bell on the career of Castillo in 2014.
But what a career it was. From sharpening his tools against Mexico’s best through thrilling in the lightweight division’s upper tier, Castillo was one of the most prominent fighters of the 2000s. Arguably no other fighter has made things tougher for Floyd Mayweather. Certainly no other boxer could have stayed in the trenches with Diego Corrales in that manner. Castillo’s name will forever have its place in the boxing history books for a myriad of reasons. There’s a reason they called him “Fearsome”.
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