Diego Corrales Interview - Part I
Leading Up To The Jose Luis Castillo Rematch
 

Photos & Report by: Bret "The Threat" Newton No one needs another introduction to what’s happening in less than a month on October 8th. Promotion isn’t necessary when Corrales and Castillo are both mentioned in the same sentence. So, cutting right to it, Diego Corrales entered the gym yesterday looking cool and relaxed and calling it “another day’s work” after getting off the phone with his mom. Corrales finished up this weeks sparring, averaging about 70 rounds for the week. We sat down with “Chico” and here’s what he said about what’s to come, and some of what already happened through his own eyes.

What are the main things you’ve been working on in camp going into the rematch with Castillo?
“Pretty much the same thing, I mean just working on staying busy, being strong. I think that things went fine for me. I gotta sit back and capitalize on the little things.”

So winning the first time, you plan on not changing so many things?
“Nah, I wouldn’t say either, I mean we sit back and do some things, but I got to capitalize on some of the mistakes I made and I know his mistakes he’ll be trying to correct and I gotta sit here and try to think of all the things he’s going to correct and work on them.”

Castillo in losing the first fight was most definitely still a winner. Much like he was in his first fight with Floyd Mayweather Jr. despite the scores favoring the opposite. However, in the rematch, despite Floyd bringing a different fight plan into the ring, Castillo just didn’t seem to be the same. Is there a possibility the same can happen here with Castillo?
“No, actually, I'm gonna tell you what’s funny. He’s gonna come at me with the same kind of everything he had in the first one, because he almost had that win. It was so close he could actually feel that, taste that, know that win. He almost knew that win, so he’s gonna come back to do it and it’s because that I'm the first person that ever stopped him. No cuts, this was being stopped. He’s gonna come back with a vengeance. He’s gonna comeback and fight me hard for how ever long he can.”

What makes this rematch so intriguing other than the fact than knowing the first one was one of the greatest fights of all time?
“What makes this fight so entertaining to everybody else now is the fact that there is real potential for one of us to be hurt badly and that’s what makes this fight so exciting to people. It’s that medieval, primal search that we as people have, you know, to watch this kind of stuff. Gladiators go to war. We have a real good chance of hurting each other and this the best fifty bucks that anybody can spend. This is gonna be the best, I don’t care what they say. Everybody who’s ordering this, everybody who’s gonna be at the fight is gonna go “You know, this is the best eight hundred dollars I spent for front row”, or “best twenty five bucks I spent”, or “best hundred dollars”, or “best fifty bucks” for ordering it. There gonna feel it. It’s the thrill of knowing that you have two people, same bad intentions and the capability of really doing damage.”

Ask: Diego Corrales

Gabriel Olivera asks:

Wusup man? I want to congratulate you on your win over Castillo. Great fight! What do you plan to do differently this time. It seemed like he caught you flush many times w/ the uppercut. Is that something you and your team worked on? Do it again homie!
Gabriel Olivera

“Absolutely. Period, point blank is I don’t want to take all the same shots I took the last fight. That means I learned absolutely nothing from that fight. That means I absolutely learned nothing. So if I go in there and get hit with the same shots over and over again, well that means I'm a big ol’ dummy and I'm not feeling anxious to show that. But I mean, give Castillo a lot of credit, he’s very, very sneaky with the uppercut. He disguises and hide the uppercut so well, the guy gets a lot of credit for things he does on the inside and that’s one thing he does really well, he hides that uppercut. He actually pulls it to where you don’t really see it until the last minute and the next thing you know it’s right there, you know you really cant get a chance to get adjusted to it. But yeah, I'm working on things as far as that goes. I don’t plan on getting hit with the same shots. I don’t want to at least, but you know, hey, it all boils down to fight night.”

Neil1690 asks:
do you plan on spitting out your mouthpiece consistently in the rematch if Castillo gets on top of you again ??????

“Did he complain in the 8th round when I tried to fight without it for lord knows how long, I mean, probably about thirty seconds. Did he complain about all the low blows that I never complained about when all that time I could’ve gotten a five minute break. I mean come on man. It is what it is. Point blank, you look at the tape, “he pulled out the mouth piece”, yeah I pulled it out, I didn’t mean to drop it. It slipped out of my hand. The 1st one it flopped out, the second one I just wanted to get my breath. Tons of fighters done it, everybody in boxing seen it happen. Freitas spit his out. The mouthpiece didn’t hurt Castillo. I don’t care if I fight without the mouthpiece, I don’t really need these teeth. They have dentists that can put new ones in, I'm fine with that, I don’t really care. Bottom line, it comes down to this, mouthpiece came out, Tony Weeks did his job, he took a point. Did I mean to drop it? No, but bottom line, the official did his job. My job is to be aware of the count, get on my feet, continue to fight. But you know what, no matter what they or you say, it was an awesome fight.”


Questions or Comments? Please Contact Bret "The Threat" Newton