Originally Posted by
hitmandonny
Recently I read an article on Jose Luis Castillo.
His name is instantly recoghnisable to this day. To any boxing fan it seems like just yesterday that he was at war with the late Diego Corrales.
However, it must be noted that it is only the quality of the fight that makes it seem so recent, a lot of water has passed beneath Jose's bridge since that epic.
Jose Luis Castillo....If one references the acrimonious boxrec one will identify perhaps 20 fighters with this name, they will also be presented with 20 more Jose Castillo's and 20 Luis Castillo's, yet Jose Luis is set apart from these, not only by his success, but by his recognition.
He gained recognition because of his size, Listed as 5'8'' and apperaing taller, much of his early career was invested at Feather weight and he rose to prominence as a Lightweight and earlier Jr. Lightweight.
In recent years he has had a desperate struggle with weight and his past success has been forgotten with narrow victories and costly defeats.
Jose has in the past acknowledged that he always aimed to make the lowest weight possible. He did this in order to optimise his physical advantages of size, reach and power. He acknowledged that he would be nowhere near as effective at fighting at higher weights. On a past date, on which he announced his then future trip north to Light Welter and welterweight he was asked about a potentialbout with Antonio Margarito.
Exasperated Jose replied, "What would I want to fight a guy like THAT for?!"
He knew his limitations and he waged war with his body to get to impossible weights in order to be competitive. This is common in boxing, no shame in this at all. Ricky Hatton does the same, as do much of the Light Middleweight division.
However, this does raise questions about certain cuurent champions.
Antonio Margarito.
A monster at Welterweight.
Yet he looked less than spectacular at 154lbs. 3 of his losses came to Light Middlewight fighters, Cervantes, Jones and Santos. In these fights his "usual" physical adavntages didn't account as much and he did not have the refinement to score the wins.
In truth he has developed wth these losses and is a greater fighhter now than any of his conquerours.
But what now if he rose to Light Middleweight?
Would he find himself less effective against men that equal him in size?
Would he find his ferocity negated by men that can cope with his volume and pressure as they are accustomed to his level of power?
Ricky Hatton certainly demonstrated that when a volume pressure fighter is taken from his natural element and the opposition increased in size, he couldn't live with bigger men muffling his work.
Juan Diaz
A good quality fighter at lightweight, his pressure has proved the undoing of many fighter and he is exciting as they come.
Yet he faltered when his punches had no effect on the wily and prepared Nate Campbell.
Would his punches lack of potencey bear him utterly ineffective at Light Welter?
Who else do you feel needs to keep to their chosen weight division in order to be a success?
Do you feel it is justifiable that fighters starve themselves down to make the weight and capitalise, beating "smaller" fighters? Or do you feel, if they put in the work in training camp they deserve to be active at their desired weight?
What about health. Do you feel that the effect of wweight loss on a fighter should be treated more sternly? How could we address this?
Do you agree with my examples?
(I'll bet not with Margarito....Huge props to the Tornado.)
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Re: A viewpoint that may prove unpopular. (Weights,Margarito, Castillo etc.)
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