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.....Diego Corrales died in a motorcycle crash.
Prayers to his family.
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Posts:
3,286
Registered:
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(11 of 11)
Re: One Year Ago Today.....
May 8, 2008 12:47 AM
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I got a strange feeling that Corrales is still knocking out people in the after life.
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Do you smell what Barack is cookin?
tan.the.man24@hotmail.com
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(10 of 11)
Re: One Year Ago Today.....
May 7, 2008 10:23 PM
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Friend and fighter Corrales remembered one year later
By Kieran Mulvaney
Special to ESPN.com
I won't be so presumptuous as to call Diego Corrales a friend of mine.
Ours was both a casual relationship and a professional one. I was the writer; he was the fighter. I was the interviewer; he was the subject.
But the Las Vegas boxing community is a small fraternity. When I lived in the desert city, I would bump into him on numerous occasions, more often than was the case with most other boxers: ringside for fights large and small, at boxing gyms, in social settings. Even if we weren't exactly inviting each other out to the movies, we knew each other. In our limited interactions, we got along well.
Corrales was always amenable, always approachable, always generous with his time. Leave a message for him, and he would call right back (not a guarantee with professional athletes, believe me) and willingly talk.
The last one-on-one interview I conducted with him was for a profile on ESPN.com before his rubber match with Joel Casamayor in October 2006. I was there at the weigh-in for that bout, when he tipped the scales 5 pounds over the lightweight limit -- a transgression loaded with irony, given the fact that earlier that year Corrales and promoter Gary Shaw had sued Jose Luis Castillo for doing the same. That caused the cancellation of what would have been the concluding bout of a trilogy.
And I was ringside when Corrales, despite scoring a fifth-round knockdown, dropped a split decision to his Cuban rival.
After that fight, I didn't see, or speak with, Corrales again.
Seven months later, the day before Floyd Mayweather defeated Oscar De La Hoya, I stood outside the media room at the MGM Grand, talking with two friends -- one a fighter, one a manager, both close to Corrales. Conversation turned to our mutual associate, to concern over his well-being.
His career was less at a crossroads than at a standstill. (After his loss to Casamayor, he had stepped up to welterweight and had been dominated by Joshua Clottey, his third straight defeat.) He was separated from his wife, Michelle, who was pregnant with his child.
None of us had heard from him lately; each of us expressed our hope that he was all right.
Three days after that conversation, Corrales was dead, killed instantly when he was flung from the motorcycle he had crashed at high speed into the rear of a car.
I was on the East Coast when it happened. I was fast asleep when my phone rang in the middle of the night. I didn't hear the messages or notice that I had had any calls until I woke up the next morning.
Later that day, as the sun rose in Las Vegas, I picked up the phone and dialed. As I listened to the pain in the voices of his closest friends, I felt that pain, too. As I heard the sobs on the other end of the line, tears ran down my cheeks as well.
I was far from my extended boxing family. When friends and colleagues looked at my crestfallen face and asked me what was wrong, I just reached for the explanation that was the simplest and most easily understood, even though it was not the most precise.
"A friend of mine just died," I told them, and they understood. Or thought they did.
It is an interesting contradiction that, in their dealings with people other than those they are being paid to hurt severely, many professional boxers are extremely polite and usually quite reserved. It is a reality that jars with the violence that they must be prepared to mete out and absorb when the bell rings, and it was all the more acute in the case of Corrales. His popularity among fans was greater than most, not just because he was especially approachable and devoid of airs and graces outside the ring, but also because he went about his business with particular ferocity inside it.
Freakishly tall for the weight divisions in which he fought most of his bouts, he nonetheless refused to use his height to his advantage by boxing outside, choosing instead to stand and fight. And whenever he was knocked down, he almost always clambered back to his feet again, never giving up. He once told trainer Joe Goossen that he would "f---ing kill him" if he ever tried to throw in the towel.
Conversely, because Corrales was so affable and open, because he spoke so honestly and with such a quiet voice, it was hard to comprehend that he was the same man who fought so many inner demons. Those were the demons that led to his imprisonment on assault charges, the demons with which he was seemingly struggling again in the weeks before he met his end.
Personally, I choose to remember him as the willing interviewee, the friendly acquaintance, the troubled but well-meaning young man whom friends of mine knew and loved dearly.
I shall remember him also, as will millions, as a fearless in-ring warrior. Particularly, I will always remember May 7, 2005, when I was privileged to sit ringside as he somehow peeled himself off the canvas in the 10th round against Jose Luis Castillo to come roaring back and win what was the greatest fight I have ever seen and likely ever will.
I wrote that night: "Many fighters boast that their opponents have to kill them to beat them. Corrales means it. Had Castillo beheaded him and thrust a stake through his heart, he still might not have denied him." But I also wrote, "As fantastic a fight as this was, it was 30 minutes of mayhem that made both men's careers, and at the same time, surely shortened them dramatically. Neither man is likely to ever be the same again ?"
Indeed, Castillo earned just one more significant victory, and that was a tainted one: A knockout defeat of Corrales in the rematch after he had weighed in over the lightweight limit.
Corrales would not even have that much. His historic win over Castillo would be the last time his hand was raised in triumph in a boxing ring. Then came three defeats inside the ring, an unraveling outside it, and the sudden, shocking end, when he was finally felled by a blow from which even he could not recover.
That end came two years to the day of his greatest triumph, in the shadow of the arena where that triumph had taken place. In the near distance that night, the lights of the Mandalay Bay burned brightly, so near and yet so far away.
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Posts:
4,644
Registered:
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(9 of 11)
Re: One Year Ago Today.....
May 7, 2008 11:30 AM
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It's funny but very sad. I would not in anyway be surprised if they mentioned that Jhonny had died in some kind of overdose related issue. Scott Harrison is anothe one, the man does not seem to be able to live a normal life. That pretty much destroyed his boxing career before Guzman had a chance to. Lately is been Spadafora, the day we hear his gf shot him or his getting life for killing here nobody will be surprised.
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William Dettloff "Vazquez and Marquez have more heart and balls in their little pinkies than Klitschko does in his Volkswagen-sized head."
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Posts:
12,106
Registered:
9/5/01
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(8 of 11)
Re: One Year Ago Today.....
May 7, 2008 11:18 AM
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> Sad thing about Diego.
>
> Is anybody else surprised that Johnny Tapia is still
> alive?
>
> --
> William Dettloff "Vazquez and Marquez have more
> heart and balls in their little pinkies than
> Klitschko does in his Volkswagen-sized head."
Absolutely.......& you know he's cost many people a "death pool" victory.
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Posts:
4,644
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10/12/06
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(7 of 11)
Re: One Year Ago Today.....
May 7, 2008 11:05 AM
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Sad thing about Diego.
Is anybody else surprised that Johnny Tapia is still alive?
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William Dettloff "Vazquez and Marquez have more heart and balls in their little pinkies than Klitschko does in his Volkswagen-sized head."
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Posts:
12,163
Registered:
2/19/02
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(6 of 11)
Re: One Year Ago Today.....
May 7, 2008 8:36 AM
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RIP Diego.....
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HBO, LETS SEE THE ROUND CARD GIRLS AGAIN!!!!
Obama 2008
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922
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(5 of 11)
Re: One Year Ago Today.....
May 7, 2008 8:34 AM
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In Memoriam: Diego "Chico" Corrales
By David A. Avila
Diego ?Chico? Corrales will be buried today at the Palm Green Valley Mortuary in Las Vegas.
Known for taking part in a scintillating struggle with Jose Luis Castillo that many call the greatest boxing match they?ve ever seen, Corrales made his mark. Ironically that fight took place two years to the exact day before he died while racing a motorcycle at high speeds on the streets of Las Vegas.
Born in South Carolina but raised in Sacramento, Corrales was half African-American and half Mexican. When Castillo chided before their second fight that Corrales only had a Latino surname but not the spirit, Corrales let everyone know that he was both ethnicities and proud of it.
Castillo backed off almost embarrassed. He hadn?t known Corrales was so fiery about his Latino roots as well as his Black roots.
It was a simple mistake but one most people made about Corrales. He was a complex man with a combustible temperament if someone accidentally lit the fuse. But outside of confrontations, the lanky lightweight prizefighter smiled easily and generally loved people.
The first time I met Corrales was in 1999. He had beaten a couple of really talented fighters from the Southern California Inland area and nobody knew what he looked like. So I went on a hunt to find out who this Corrales kid was. We finally caught up to Corrales during a Las Vegas fight card and there he was in a tan sports coat looking like anything but the 130-pound marauder who terrorized the junior lightweights.
We called our photographer to get some photos of Corrales. While we waited I asked if we could get him anything while we waited.
?Can I have a pop?? asked Corrales in a high-pitched tone.
?A what?? asked my editor who was with me for the fight card.
?A pop. A soda pop,? said Corrales.
We all laughed simultaneously because here was this feared fighter with devastating power in each hand who called soft drinks ?soda pop? and seemed rather meek and timid.
?Why are you guys laughing?? Corrales asked.
My former editor, who is joker at hand, mocked him and advised Corrales that he should be a little more intimidating.
?Now Jesus, you better cut that out?? Corrales said to the editor named Jesus.
From that time on I got to know Corrales pretty well. It wouldn?t take long before he rose to the top.
Former Palm Springs prizefighter Steve Quinonez recalls meeting Corrales in the ring for the first time.
?I had been training for a long time and Lee Espinoza (his trainer) told me to stay in shape. He called Top Rank and they told us they had somebody named Diego Corrales. Nobody had ever heard of him. They said he was real skinny,? said Quinonez about agreeing to fight Corrales on April 4, 1997 in Las Vegas. ?The guy was just overwhelming.?
Corrales stopped Quinonez in four rounds with his usual firepower. The Palm Springs fighter felt maybe boxing wasn?t his calling. A year later Quinonez was in Las Vegas training in the Top Rank gym when Corrales showed up.
?He was saying I was the best fighter he had ever fought and that I taught him a lot,? recalls Quinonez about Corrales conversation. ?I told him: ?what did I teach you?? How to put your combinations together??
After cleaning out most of the competition in the 130-pound junior lightweight division Corrales was given a shot at the IBF title against its champion Robert ?Grandpa? Garcia from Oxnard. Corrales was six inches taller and seemed much too big for Garcia.
Despite the size disparity, Garcia was a technically proficient boxer with pretty good power too.
?Robert was a great fighter. I loved that fight,? Corrales told the Press-Enterprise two years ago. ?He was such a warrior. I kept hitting him and he kept hitting me. That guy just wouldn?t quit.?
Garcia, now retired as a fighter, recalled facing Corrales in Las Vegas on October 1999.
?Losing to Diego was losing to a great champion,? said Garcia, who now trains fighters in Oxnard and recently sent several of his fighters to spar with Corrales. ?He was always telling my fighters how good I fought. He didn?t have to do that.?
During their fight Garcia was able to move and set traps for Corrales. But little by little the distance was diminishing and Corrales dropped Garcia several times. Each time Garcia got up wobbly but determined to go on. Corrales admired him for that.
?Up until he knocked me out, the judges had me winning,? said Garcia who was eventually knocked out in the seventh round. ?It makes me proud that I gave up my title to a great fighter. Not just any fighter.?
Corrales defended his world title successively four times winning three by knockout. Then he agreed to meet Floyd Mayweather in a unification bout for the WBC junior lightweight title. He also faced charges of attacking his common-law wife. It was a bad situation for Corrales and ultimately he lost to Mayweather and lost the court case. Off he went to jail for two years from 2001 to 2003.
When Corrales returned to the ring he seemed a little more somber as if he wanted to strike back at the world. He met four fighters in the ring and annihilated all of them within five rounds. Then came Cuba?s slick southpaw Joel Casamayor and the world got a glimpse at what Corrales was capable in getting up from two knockdowns and knocking his opponent silly. A bad mouthpiece caused a severe cut inside Corrales mouth and the fight was stopped. A technical knockout victory was given to Casamayor. Corrales was enraged.
?You have to kill me in the ring,? Corrales said after that fight and continued to say and believe in that philosophy.
A subsequent rematch with Casamayor ended with a decision for Corrales. He was then matched with Brazil?s undefeated Acelino Freitas on August 2004 and he caught up to the swift Brazilian with a two-fisted attack that produced four knockdowns. Freitas quit.
The following week as I walked inside the Mandalay Bay Resort and Casino with Maxboxing.com?s photographer German Villasenor, Corrales was walking along and surprised by all of the autograph seekers. I told him that his days of anonymity were over after he stopped Freitas.
We all went for a buffet lunch and sat and talked about boxing for about an hour. Meanwhile Corrales kept excusing himself as he ventured to the dessert section for cakes, cookies and pudding. He must have gobbled down about eight of them and would have continued except for the autograph seekers.
?Where do you put all of that?? I asked Corrales.
He just shrugged and said: ?I?m hungry.?
Hungry for boxing is best how to describe Corrales.
Jin and Shane Mosley became fast friends with Corrales and his wife Michele two years ago.
?We automatically liked Diego from the beginning,? said Jin Mosley who remembers having dinner with Corrales and wife at a Las Vegas restaurant. ?I remember Diego telling me his dream of retiring at 30 and opening up a roller rink arcade fun zone.?
Both fighting families spent time together and had much in common.
?I loved Michele and we bonded very quickly,? Jin Mosley said of Diego?s wife. ?Shane and Diego both had so much in common with boxing of course and snowboarding. They would spend hours talking about boxing and went on snowboarding trips.?
Corrales also had many other friends. During his epic first contest with Castillo in Las Vegas, calloused prizefighters like Winky Wright and James Toney could be seen yelling out instructions and encouragement during the encounter. And when Corrales seemed just about finished from a second knockdown but returned to win by a shocking knockout, both Toney and Wright jumped up and down. You would have thought their baby brother had won.
So inspiring was that fight that the New York Jets football coach used a tape of the fight to inspire his team.
For many, Corrales was like a baby brother. A real human being who made costly mistakes but refused to quit under any circumstance.
?Those fights with Jose Luis Castillo, I?ve never seen any fights better than those,? said Garcia. ?I?ll miss seeing him around the fights. It really is sad to know Diego is gone.?
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(4 of 11)
Re: One Year Ago Today.....
May 7, 2008 8:33 AM
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I remember seeing Corrales for the first time pitted against Roberto Garcia beneath Tyson-Norris. Chico was getting outclassed and lumped up in the early going and turned things around in I believe the fifth and sixth rounds by knocking Garcia down. Then in the fateful seventh round hit Garcia with a right cross which ended the fight. I felt like a child that had discovered a new toy. What immense pleasure he delivered both in victory and defeat. A true warrior that was not afraid to go out on his shield.
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922
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(3 of 11)
Re: One Year Ago Today.....
May 7, 2008 8:12 AM
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Indeed R.I.P. Chico Corrales the sport you loved loves and misses you. 
Happily, it's also the three year anniversary of Corrales-Castillo I.
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12,106
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(2 of 11)
Re: One Year Ago Today.....
May 7, 2008 8:11 AM
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....& 3 years ago today, he was the winner in the best damn fight you could ask for.
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Posts:
11,589
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11/1/01
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(1 of 11)
May 7, 2008 8:10 AM
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.....Diego Corrales died in a motorcycle crash.
Prayers to his family.
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