2005 Harry Markson Award Fight of the Year CORRALES - CASTILLO I	Fight of the Year 2003 James Toney-Vassiliy Jirov 2004 Marco Antonio Barrera-Erik Morales III 2005 Diego Corrales-Jose Luis Castillo I
By Bernard Fernandez Philadelphia Daily News Perhaps the first truth of boxing is that fighters lie. It's not necessarily a character flaw. Desperate men routinely distort reality to buy extra time from a referee or a ring physician upon whose judgment their further participation in a bout hinges. Half-blinded fighters nod and offer false assurances that their field of vision is unobstructed, that they can see an opponent's punches as clearly as they did at the opening bell. Asked about the mouses beneath his eyes, Diego Corrales described the lumps of flesh as "marbles, big, hard marbles." But did the apparent sense of urgency with which Corrales fought the eighth, ninth and 10th rounds of his epic lightweight unification bout with Jose Luis Castillo owe to the fact that he was battling time as much as Castillo? That a curtain was slowly being drawn across the slits his battered eyes had become? "It's not my job to worry about swelling," Corrales said at the postfight press conference, offering still another magnificent prevarication. "It's not my job to worry about knockdowns. It's not my job to worry about anything that might hinder me. It's the corner's job to worry about those things. It's my job to fight." Dropped twice in the 10th round of one of the most brutal, exciting bouts in lightweight history, and teetering on the brink of being stopped himself, Corrales somehow launched a final, furious assault, battering Castillo into submission along the ropes before referee Tony Weeks stepped in 2 minutes, 6 seconds into the 10th round of the scheduled 12-rounder at the Mandalay Bay. If it can be said that a bout not ending in a draw has no loser, this one was it. The two-way action was so intense, so mesmerizing, that the Boxing Writers Association of America voted Corrales-Castillo I -- the rematch, on Oct. 8, saw Castillo come in over the contract weight and knock out Corrales on a vicious left hook in the fourth round -- as the Harry Markson Award winner for 2005's Fight of the Year. "[Castillo's] eyes rolled back, his arms were at his sides," said Weeks, whose actions in the 10th round tinged the outcome of the May 6 classic in controversy. "He was out. I had to stop it." Corrales' trainer, Joe Goossen, said his guy's avoidance of near-certain defeat is sure to become the stuff of legend. "I've never seen anybody come back like that, from those knockdowns," Goossen said. "We were very worried in the corner. But I remember Diego telling me, `If you ever stop one of my fights, I'll kill you.' "I have told people Castillo is the greatest fighter out there today. Diego beat him. That makes him the greatest fighter out there today." Or maybe the most successful at finding ways of providing himself the sort of minivacations that can mean the difference between victory and defeat. Corrales has had trouble with his mouthpiece in the past, resulting in severe lacerations to his lips and gums. But he had insisted that a softer, more pliable mouthpiece had corrected the problem and that it would not be an issue in the fight. Was it discomfort, dislodgment or simple gamesmanship that caused Corrales to spit out his mouthpiece during a seventh-round exchange? Weeks, who rules that Corrales disgorged the mouthpiece on purpose, nonetheless allowed Goossen to rinse it off before reinserting it, giving Corrales a 15-second respite. Castillo - whose face also was bruised and nicked to a fare-thee-well - appeared to gain the upper hand for the last time in the seesaw battle when he floored Corrales with a crushing hook to the jaw in the 10th round. "Great left hook," Corrales conceded. "The second knockdown, I was still buzzed. He got me again. But I knew I was going to get up." Corrales did arise, at the count of nine, but only after again intentionally spitting out his mouthpiece. Weeks deducted a penalty point, but he again allowed Goossen to rinse off and reinsert the mouthpiece. Corrales' remarkable blitz followed. "Forget the Long Count. Twenty-eight seconds. Nearly half a minute. If Jose Luis had spit out his mouthpiece, maybe he would have gotten 28 seconds (to recuperate)," complained Castillo's promoter, Bob Arum. Corrales' promoter, Gary Shaw, said the display of courage by both men superseded questions about Weeks' handling of the critical sequence. "There's nothing worse than taking away from a night like this," Shaw said, gesturing toward Corrales. "This is the fight of the year, fight of next year, fight of the decade. I don't believe you'll eversee anything like this again. This fight cannot be sullied by controversy." At the time of the stoppage, Corrales - the WBO champion who added Castillo's WBC 135-pound title - led, 87-84 and 86-85, on the scorecards submitted by judges Lou Moret and Daniel Van DeWeile. Castillo was was ahead, 87-84, on the card of judge Paul Smith. Castillo, as might be expected, had his own thoughts about the way things had ended. "He never recovered fast. The referee did him a favor," Castillo said when asked if Corrales' stunning reversal of momentum surprised him. Castillo then tried to see a lie of his own. And why not? He is a fighter. "I don't know why the referee stopped it," he said. "I wasn't hurt that bad."
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