Diego Corrales

Diego Corrales
Data
Birth Name	Diego Corrales
Fight name	Chico
Weight class	lightweight
nationality	US-american
birthday	August 25, 1977
place of birth	Sacramento
Date of death	May 7, 2007
Place of death	Las Vegas
style	Left delivery
size	1.80 m
Combat Statistics
Struggles	45
Victories	40
Knockout victories	33
Defeats	5

Diego "Chico" Corrales (born August 25, 1977 in Sacramento , California , † May 7, 2007 in Las Vegas , Nevada ) was an American professional boxer . Corrales was world champion of the IBF and WBO in super featherweight, as well as world champion of the WBO and WBC in lightweight.

His duel against José Luis Castillo on May 7, 2005 in Las Vegas , which was voted Boxing Match of the Year by Ring Magazine and HBO as Boxing Match of the Decade, became legendary .

amateur

Corrales was the son of a Colombian and a Mexican. As an amateur, he completed 117 fights with 105 wins and 12 losses. In featherweight he finished second at the US championships in 1994 and won bronze at the Pan American Games in 1995. In the lightweight he took part in the amateur world championships in Berlin in 1995, but lost in the first fight against Marco Rudolph .

Professional career

Corrales' professional debut took place on March 19, 1996. He won his first 28 fights in a row, including against World Championship challenger Claudio Victor Martinet (59-7) and eventual IBF World Champion Gairy St. Clair (15-0). Then he boxed on October 23, 1999 in Las Vegas for the IBF super featherweight championship against Roberto García (32-0), had it three times on the ground and won by tKo in the seventh round. He defended his world title for the first time on December 4, 1999 unanimously on points against John Brown (20-6).

On March 18, 2000 he beat the later WBA world champion Derrick Gainer (33-4) in his second title defense by tKo in the third round. In June 2000 he also won against Justin Juuko (34-3) by knockout in the tenth round. In another title defense he defeated Angel Manfredy (33-4) early in the third round in September 2000 .

On January 20, 2001, he stepped in Las Vegas against Floyd Mayweather Jr. (24-0) in the ring and boxed for the WBC super featherweight championship. However, he was boxed by Mayweather and went down five times before his corner of the ring threw in the towel in the tenth round and the fight against the Corrales protests was ended. The fight was rated as a tKo defeat.

After the fight, Corrales struggled with personal problems and was jailed for fourteen months after breaking his pregnant ex-wife's collarbone and multiple ribs in an argument.

In January 2003 he returned to the ring. After four wins, he fought the Cuban Joel Casamayor in October of that year . Both had to go to the ground in the fight, in the sixth round it was abandoned in favor of Casamayor because of a badly bleeding wound in Corrales' mouth. Five months later there was a rematch with Casamayor for the vacant WBO title, which he was able to win tightly and happily, although he was back on the ground.

Then he finally switched to the lightweight. He went straight to the undefeated Brazilian WBO world champion Acelino Freitas (35-0). Corrales won the fight and the title after the exhausted Freitas gave up in the tenth round due to three knockdowns.

Next came the unification fight on May 7, 2005 with WBC world champion José Luis Castillo (52-6). In a spectacular fight, Corrales won by tKo in the tenth round, after he had been knocked down twice before and had been deducted a point for deliberately spitting out the face mask.

The controversial circumstances led to an early rematch on October 8, 2005, which was to become even more controversial. Castillo exceeded the lightweight limit at the official weigh-in. The fight was then carried out as a non-title fight. On the day of the fight, Corrales' weight was curiously above the Castillos. This time, however, Castillo won by knockout in the fourth round.

Now a third fight has been scheduled. Originally scheduled for February 4, 2006, Corrales postponed it to June 3, 2006 following a rib injury sustained in training. However, Castillo could not meet the weight limit again, so Corrales canceled the fight.

In 2006 he lost in the third fight against Casamayor. Then Corrales went up to welterweight, where he played his last fight against Joshua Clottey and lost on points.

Corrales died in a traffic accident in Las Vegas on May 7, 2007 after his motorcycle collided with a car.

Web links

• Diego Corrales in the BoxRec database

predecessor	Office	successor
Roberto García	Super featherweight boxing world champion ( IBF ) October 23, 1999 - October 2000	vacant Steve Forbes

predecessor	Office	successor
Acelino Freitas	Super featherweight boxing champion ( WBO ) March 6, 2004 - 2004	vacant Mike Anchondo

predecessor	Office	successor
Acelino Freitas	World lightweight boxing champion ( WBO ) August 7, 2004 - 2005	vacant Acelino Freitas

predecessor	Office	successor
José Luis Castillo	World lightweight boxing champion ( WBC ) May 7, 2005 - October 6, 2006	vacant Joel Casamayor