JOSE LUIS CASTILLO

updated June 25, 2007

At the age of 32, Jose has been fighting as a pro for over 16 1/2 years. A former two-time WBC lightweight world champion, he has been fighting at the top levels of competition at 135 pounds for six years.

Jose won the WBC world title in June, 2000, and made three successful defenses before losing the title to Floyd Mayweather in April, 2002. He regained the title in June, 2004, and made two successful defenses before losing the title to Diego Corrales in May, 2005.

He had a sensational two-fight series with Diego Corrales last year. Both fights were tremendous battles, with each fighter winning one by knockout.

Both fights also involved controversies, with each fighter at the center of one. In the rematch on October 8, Jose scored a spectacular one-punch knockout win, but did not make the 135-pound weight limit.

In their first fight on May 7, Corrales scored a tenth-round TKO win in a WBO-WBC title unification bout. Many veteran observers rank it as one of the top-ten greatest fights of all time. The controversy involved Corrales - knocked down two times in the tenth round, he gained extra time to recover after each knockdown by dropping his mouthpiece.

A third fight was scheduled against Corrales two times. The first was scheduled for February 4, 2006, but Corrales was injured in training, and Roland Reyes filled in. The second was scheduled for June 3, but Jose could not make the 135 pound limit and the fight was cancelled.

Regarding the first Corrales fight, Jose said through an interpreter, "The fight plan since day one is go in there and knock him out. The fact that I only trained for 21 days for the fight should tell people something, after what I did to him. Maybe without [referee] Tony Weeks' help, I could have won that fight even with the little training that I did.

"I had just fought in March and there wasn't that much time to train anyway. But I was so confident that I could knock him out with one punch, I had seen his fights, that I thought I would be ready to go. I was so confident because everyone kept telling me, 'If you hit him real good, he's going down.' So my confidence was sky high that I wouldn't have to work that hard in that fight. I haven't really said that to people too much. A lot of people on my team knew, and a lot of people near me knew what I went through in those 21 days. Now I'm able to tell people so they know what I had to overcome in the first fight. I was out of gas after the fifth round. From the fifth to the tenth round, I was fighting only on heart."

Regarding the rematch, Jose said, "I got hurt about 12 days before the fight. It was during sparring, it was towards the end of the round. When they yelled, '10 seconds,' I kind of relaxed a little bit, but the kid I was sparring with didn't. He threw a great shot right at my rib.

"They even did an x-ray on me and it showed that there was some ligament damage. All I could do for the last 12 days was shadowbox, basically. I know it was a disadvantage for me, because I wasn't prepared as well as I could have been. "They talk about the weight, but the day that I had to do the re-weigh, the day of the fight, I was at 146 and he was at 149. The day of the fight, he was bigger than I was. I think I would have come in at 146 even if I had made 135 the day before.

"The only time I didn't make a championship weight for a title fight before was when I fought Cesar Bazan. I was a pound and a half over. It was difficult, but I was able to take it off and fight for the title. That's the only other time it happened."

Before Jose's first fight against Corrales, he had won two fights in a row against former world champions Julio Diaz and Joel Casamayor, and before that had beaten WBC No. 1 ranked contender Juan Lazcano. Jose's previous two losses were in 2002, both by 12-round decision against Floyd Mayweather, but most observers thought Jose deserved to win their first fight.

Jose won the WBC lightweight world title for the second time in June, 2004, and made two successful title defenses. He previously held the title from June, 2000, until April, 2002, and made three successful title defenses.

Jose turned pro at 16 and went 24-3 over his first six years as a pro, with all three losses coming by TKO in challenges for the Mexican national featherweight title. Two of the losses were against Javier Jauregui, who went on to win the IBF lightweight world title in 2003. The other was against Cesar Soto, who went on to win the WBC featherweight world title in 1999.

He worked from 1996 to 2000 as one of the main sparring partners for legendary former three-time world champion Julio Cesar Chavez.

Jose is trained by Tiburcio Garcia, who was the chief assistant to Nacho Beristain in Mexico City for several years. [note: Beristain's first world champions were Daniel Zaragoza, who won the WBC bantamweight world in 1985, and Gilberto Roman, who won the WBC super flyweight world title in 1986; Beristain currently trains former IBF-WBA featherweight world champion Juan Manuel Marquez and his brother, IBF bantamweight world champion Rafael Marquez]

Jose is experienced against top opposition and has several impressive wins to his credit. He has fought current or former world champions Diego Corrales twice (KO4, TKOby10), Julio Diaz (TKO10), Joel Casamayor (W12), Floyd Mayweather twice (L12, L12), Cesar Bazan (TKO6), Stevie Johnston twice (W12, D12), Jorge Paez (TKO5), Javier Jauregui twice (TKOby10, TKOby10), and Cesar Soto (TKOby2). He has fought a number of contenders, as well.

Jose was born in Empalme, Mexico, and grew up in a family with four brothers and four sisters...he said, "My father used to be a professional fighter, but he worked a lot of years on the railroad. He never gave up his job at the railroad. He used to take us to all the boxing, whether he fought or not, and I really enjoyed the sport. I thought it was fun. There was always boxing gloves around the house, so it was just natural for me to step into it.

"I used to go to my dad's fights when I was about seven or eight years old. I used to get up in ring between fights and do my workout right there, my shadowboxing, and people would throw money at me. I liked that part. I was 12 years old when I started fighting as an amateur, and I had 33 amateur fights. I was 30-3. I was 25-0 before somebody beat me.

"They were looking for me to go up and join the national team in Mexico City. I was there for 15 days, and I didn't like the way they trained people, the way they were doing things. I just left and turned pro. I have no regrets whatsoever about turning pro at 16."...

Jose is a regular at the Mexicali Eagles' games in the Mexican winter baseball league; he takes batting practice with the team and sits on their bench in full uniform, with his name stitched on the back...

Jose said, "I don't think I've changed much as a boxer over the years, I think everything's the same. Now that I've fought some of the best fighters in the world, that experience itself has helped me a lot. I think I was ready for those challenges in 1996 and '97, but I never got the opportunity to fight the best fighters in the world. And it's not only a question of getting the opportunites, but doing something with them, and I think I have done that.

"I've done a little promoting. I've done a couple of boxing cards, just promoting younger guys here in Mexicali. I'll probably continue to do that until I retire, and after I retire I'll look to do something else. Hopefully, I'll fight two or three more years, you know, be on top of my game, and after that I'm going to declare myself as a political candidate. I'm going to be the mayor of my city."... Jose has two sons, Cristian, aged seven, and 13-year old Jose Luis Jr....