Diego "Chico" Corrales Speaks!

By Jose Reyes

Photo: Big Joe Miranda

On June 3, WBC lightweight champion Diego "Chico" Corrales (40-3, 33 KOs) will be facing the former two-time WBC 135-pound champion Jose Luis Castillo (54-7-1, 47 KOs) for a third consecutive time for Corrales' 135lb title at the Thomas & Mack Center in Las Vegas, Nevada. The card will be CO-promoted by Top Rank, Inc., and Gary Shaw Productions, LLC and will be televised live on Showtime Championship boxing.

Corrales spoke to Fightnews about the eagerly anticipated battle. "I think that everybody is ready to see the warriors....I think this fight must be shown as what the whole trilogy stands for and what it is all about. It stands for war! It stands for combat! It's stands for head to head battle!" said Corrales. "Castillo says this is like thunder and lightning, and he is the thunder. But thunder is noise. Lightning is action. Lightning destroys trees and houses. This June 3 is the last time you will see Castillo and I together. Castillo will not have to go far to see me. I will be right in front of him....I am not making excuses for how our last fight ended, but I am still not convinced who the best lightweight in the world is. But I know for sure Castillo is going to make the weight this time, even if it means we sit around all day waiting for him. I think the respite has done me good. I feel great, and am looking forward to another great fight. Who wouldn't want to watch us go at it again?"

Read on to know what else is on Chico's mind about the clash of warrriors.

Your first two fights with Castillo were filled with some controversy. Diego, here you go again with Jose Luis Castillo, for a third time. What can we expect this time?
A great fight again!

Will it go the full 12 rounds?
You know what? I don't know. Honestly, I really don't know. I mean, well, hell -- I got him the first fight, he got me the second fight I mean who really knows how it turns out? You never know. The only thing that is for sure and we will see in this fight is, the final chapter of this great trilogy that we are in, and it will end with no controversy at all.

Last time you fought Jose Luis the controversy was Castillo not making weight and being somewhat spared from fatigue and coming in stronger than you. Castillo swears this time around he will make the weight. What are your thoughts on that?
I guess he will make weight then. There is one thing about Castillo and that is that he is a man of his word. If he says he will make the weight, he will make the weight. If he doesn't make the weight at first then guess what, he will have to make weight. He has not fought me for my title at 135.

Castillo says that this will be his last fight at 135. Let's say you beat him here at 135. Will you fight him again at 140?
If......when I beat him again, Yeah, when I beat him, he will have to go to 140 and win a title and we can do it again at 140. You know what? You never know. People will love, people will watch to see us fight a million times. No matter who wins, no matter what happens. People keep paying to see us fight each other forever.

They could not have been scripted any better. That is your two fights with Castillo. People that know you Chico, for a long time, since your boxing amateur days, they tell me about how they who would see this young teenage kid working hard, sparring with world champions, like Tony "The Tiger" Lopez and welterweights like Ray Lovato in Sacramento, California and how you would hold your own like a pro and now, years later, we see that same fire in you as professional. What is it that brings out the big heart and sacrifice you display in the ring time in and time out?
My family. I know that, what I am doing is making my family proud. I want my family to be proud of me in everything that I have done and achieved. I only know one way, I only know how to work hard and push myself to the very, very end, so my family can be proud.
That's what brings out the fire, that's the drive in me. My family. It's really my family, to make them proud when I step in that ring.

It's like you live and die in the ring, isn't it? That kind of mentality, after being dropped several times in the first fight with Castillo and then coming back and knocking him out in stellar fashion and in your second fight, you got dropped and getting up and wanting to continue the fight. Don't you think that in this your third fight with Jose Luis you can maybe make it easier for yourself by boxing from the outside and staying away from in fighting close with him and rather using distance and your reach advantage?
Oh, yeah! I think it would, I think it would (using his reach advantage), but I think that everybody is ready to see the warriors. I think this fight (the third between Castillo, Corrales) must be shown as what the whole trilogy stands for and what it is all about. It stands for War! It stands for Combat! It's stands for head to head Battle! That's what will make this trilogy so great.

Speaking of which, Chico, you have been in wars, you have been in battles. What will be next for a Chico Corrales, after this fight after this win?
You know what? Honestly, I would love to go back to the Arco Arena and do something real big at home in Sacramento. I would really, really love that. Defend my title at home, bring something back to Sacramento, the place where it all started. Give my fans at home what they deserve, I would like to do that. A big fight.

You would unify the titles at 135?
You know, I would like to but first things first and that's to take care of Castillo and Castillo is more than enough work on my....he is a big enough meal on my plate so, I will keep my mind on him first.

Anything that you see in Castillo, maybe a deterioration that you saw in the tapes that you can pick up and use against him?
Oh yeah! We saw a lot of good stuff in the tapes. We can't tell you about the stuff, I can't tell you too much, you know.

Yes, of course, but you have figured them out and know on what to work on now?
Absolutely, absolutely. This time you will see, the fight changes and gameplans. He made the adjustments (in the last fight) and I will make some adjustments now too. You will see some of the things that I have now gotten better at too.

He did seem to catch you by surprise last time using lateral movement and moving side to side, didn't he?
Yeah! He caught me and popped me off guard. He took a step back and then stepped to the side (when Castillo delivered the knockout blow). Now, we have to adjust to those things and do the things that work. So we have to adjust a few little things but we also have been looking at some other things coming from his other fights, before me and after me.

When it's all said and done with your boxing career Chico.What is it that you want to leave behind in your legacy?
Just that I love the sport and I have given everything for the game. I think that's what any great athlete would want to be remembered in their sport for. That's for leaving everything you have on the table, for the fans that watch the sport and for the writers that write about the sport. So everyone can see that they left everything, they left their mark, a positive mark and that they were fantastic. That's all that I want for them to remember me as. As a great fighter, as someone that through out history, that's what I think and people talk (about boxing) they can say 'That kid was good, but you remember Chico Corrales? Man he doesn't compare to him,' you know?

You are a world class fighter and a world class person. A great sportsman while winning and in defeat. Speaking of defeats, there is one in my mind that you had. Floyd Mayweather. You were not yourself in that fight both physically and mentally although you got up time after time after being knocked down. Would you ever want to avenge that defeat?
Oh, yeah! The thing is he is moving up in weight so fast I am never going to catch the guy. First thing, secondly, I do believe and everybody knows that it wasn't me in that ring that night. I think that everybody is waiting to see if that fight happens. Like I said before if he would not move up in weight so fast and stay in one division long enough for me to catch up with him. I think the world does want to see that, but I think Castillo is first in order for me and Floyd to happen again. I have to handle Castillo first.

I compare your first fight with Floyd Mayweather as the fight between Marco Antonio Barrera and Manny Pacquiao. To me that wasn't Barrera in that fight.
Right!

Personally I would like to see them fight again, just so I can see a well determined, well prepared world class fighter like Barrera and see what he really is in the ring with another world class fighter that Pacquiao is and the same with you and Mayweather. A well prepared physically and mentally Diego "Chico" Corrales, a warrior up in there with Mayweather who is a great fighter himself.
Yeah. I agree, I agree. Everyone will have those moments in their life in their career (bad nights) where something gets in the way and you don't have that extra. So can I. It just so happens that people know what I was going through at that time and Barrera, he had his fair share of headaches and turmoil when he fought Pacquiao.

Win or lose the fans and writers will get their money's worth when you and Castillo strap them on for a third time. What would you like to tell your fans through Fightnews?
In closing, Fightnews, all my fans over there. Do not miss the final chapter of this trilogy with Castillo. Because I will end it and I am going to end it in stunning fashion.