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Corrales vs Casamayor III..........
Corrales gets trilogy request, but with Casamayor
By Dan Rafael ESPN.com http://sports.espn.go.com/sports/box...ory?id=2527159
Lightweight champion Diego "Chico" Corrales will get his trilogy. It just won't be with Jose Luis Castillo.
Flyweight unification in works
Promoter Gary Shaw hasn't only been working on finalizing a third Diego Corrales-Joel Casamayor fight.
Shaw told ESPN.com on Saturday that he is also putting together a flyweight unification fight between title holders Vic Darchinyan and Omar Narvaez for Showtime's Nov. 4 card.
Shaw, who promotes Darchinyan (26-0, 21 KOs), flew to Argentina two weeks ago to cut a deal with Narvaez (21-0-2, 15 KOs), who, like Darchinyan, is a southpaw.
They are also both former Olympians. Darchinyan represented Armenia in the 1996 Games. Narvaez was a two-time Olympian (1996 and 2000) for Argentina.
Shaw said that Narvaez's participation in the fight is contingent upon him defeating mandatory challenger Rexon Flores Aug. 5 in Cordoba, Argentina. Shaw said the fight wouldn't be signed until after the Aug. 5 fight. Story
Instead, Corrales will defend his 135-pound crown against former junior lightweight titlist Joel Casamayor in a rubber match Oct. 7 on Showtime during the network's free preview weekend, Corrales promoter Gary Shaw told ESPN.com on Saturday.
"It's done. It's made," Shaw said. "I have Casamayor's signed contract back and Diego will sign his Tuesday because he is out of town, but the fight is done. Now they can settle their score."
Casamayor (33-3-1, 21 KOs) stopped Corrales (40-3, 33 KOs) in their first action-packed fight Oct. 4, 2003. In the non-title bout, Casamayor went down once and Corrales was knocked down twice before the fight was stopped due to heavy bleeding from cuts to Corrales' mouth and lip.
In the immediate rematch, Corrales won a vacant junior lightweight belt on a split decision March 6, 2004. Although Corrales was knocked down in the 10th round, most viewed him as the clear winner.
Corrales was supposed to face Castillo in a rubber match in June, but the fight was canceled the day before because Castillo failed to make the 135-pound lightweight limit for the second consecutive bout with Corrales.
That left Shaw to find Corrales the biggest fight he could make, and Casamayor, a 1992 Olympic gold medalist for Cuba before defecting shortly before the 1996 Games, fit the bill.
On July 7, Casamayor scored a ninth-round TKO of Lamont Pearson on ESPN2's "Friday Night Fights," and following the bout, Casamayor, promoter Luis DeCubas and Corrales, who was the "FNF" studio guest, got into a heated exchange during a joint interview.
Casamayor demanded a rubber match with Corrales, who responded that Casamayor had shown little against Pearson and didn't deserve one.
But things quickly changed, Shaw said.
"At the time of that interview earlier this month, there was no discussion about this fight," Shaw said. "But 'Chico' will fight anybody, to his credit. We looked at opponents who were available and what we could make and what we couldn't. This fight was one I knew we could make. I thought it was a good rubber match, and these guys don't like each other, so it makes for a good fight and good theater. So Diego said, 'Make the fight,' and I did."
Shaw said he hopes to match former super middleweight titlist Jeff Lacy (21-1, 17 KOs) against Allan Green (21-0, 15 KOs) on the undercard. Green knocked out Season 1 "Contender" participant Anthony Bonsante in the fifth round on this week's "Friday Night Fights."
Lacy hasn't fought since March, when he lost his 168-pound belt to Joe Calzaghe in a lopsided unification fight.
Shaw said he and Green promoter Tony Holden have had fruitful discussions and that the fight can be made if Lacy agrees to it.
The fight with Green came about after negotiations for a Lacy fight against former light heavyweight champ Antonio Tarver fell apart this week over Tarver's demands.
"Tarver-Lacy is dead," Shaw said. "It was obvious by his financial demands that Tarver didn't want the fight."
Shaw hasn't yet secured a venue for Corrales-Casamayor III, but he hopes to place it in Las Vegas. Wherever it lands, it will face stiff competition on television from HBO, which will go head-to-head with Showtime when 7-foot, 320-pound Nicolay Valuev of Russia defends his heavyweight belt against Monte Barrett from New York's Madison Square Garden.
Shaw said he isn't worried about the competition.
"I think the Valuev fight is almost a freak show, and I think ours is a real fight," Shaw said. "I'm not really concerned. If I can pull Jeff and Allan Green off to go with Corrales-Casamayor, I think it's a much better show. But the fans will decide which one they think is the real show."
i want to see Corrales vs Casamayor III...........................
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Originally Posted by rsan-chez
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