Javier Castillejo

Javier Castillejo
Javier Castillejo 2013
Data
Birth Name	Francisco Javier Castillejo Rodríguez
Fight name	El Lince de Parla ( The Lynx of Parla )
Weight class	medium weight
nationality	Spanish
birthday	March 22, 1968
place of birth	Parla
style	Left delivery
size	1.78 m
Combat Statistics
Struggles	72
Victories	62
Knockout victories	43
Defeats	8th
draw	1

Francisco Javier Castillejo Rodríguez (born March 22, 1968 in Parla , Spain ) is a former Spanish professional boxer , former two-time European light middleweight champion, two-time WBC world light middleweight champion and WBA world middleweight champion.

Professional career

Castillejo became a professional welterweight in 1988 and lost in his eighth fight in 1989 against the more experienced British Del Bryan (24 fights) on points. He won the Spanish championship in 1990, but did not beat anyone of any name before moving up a class.

In 1993 he lost to the Argentine southpaw Julio César Vásquez in the fight for his WBA semi-middleweight title on points.

In 1994 he finally won his first major international title. With an early victory in the sixth round over the French Bernard Razzano, Castillejo secured the European Championship. Razzano had previously sensationally won the title by knocking out his indisposed compatriot Laurent Boudouani .

Castillejo defended the European title four times in a row before meeting that Boudouani in 1995. Against Castillejo, Boudouani was in top form again in 1995 and won the title back after a one-sided fight by knockout. In the rematch, Boudouani won every single round and won on points.

The fights against Boudouani and Vásquez established a pattern that would repeat itself again and again later: He apparently had too little talent to assert himself against the world class. On the other hand, he repeatedly beat opponents of the so-called "second row" quite safely, won back the European title in 1998 against the Russian Ahmet Dottuev and was number 1 in the WBC rankings.

In 1999 he benefited again from the fact that a title holder had lost sensationally; Keith Mullings had knocked out Terry Norris in 1997 and won the WBC title. That didn't make Mullings a big name in the US and the Spaniards won the auction of the fight. Castillejo beat Mullings on January 29, 1999 in Spain just on points and was not only title holder of the WBC, but also linear world champion in light middleweight.

But since his deficits were known and the five opponents against whom he successfully defended the title were considered weak, Óscar de la Hoya , who had risen to this class, met with great mockery, especially in the Latin press of America, when he challenged the Spaniard, for Castillejo did not enjoy much respect. The fight went as expected, De la Hoya won eleven of twelve rounds and even knocked Castillejo to the ground in the end, but could not defeat him prematurely.

In 2002 Castillejo scored a remarkable victory on points over the undefeated Russian and later IBF World Champion Roman Karmasin , but it seemed like he was letting his career draw to a close. In 2005, at the age of 37, he was defeated in a second US appearance by the US American Fernando Vargas , who was on the decline , again high on points.

On July 15, 2006 he received a title chance against Felix Sturm in the middleweight division. The bout was widely viewed as a supposedly easy voluntary first defense of the title for Sturm against an aging former light middleweight. Accordingly, Castillejo went into the fight as a 10 to 1 underdog with the bookmakers.

But after being booed by the audience for his negative warfare in his last fight, Sturm wanted to demonstrate fighting qualities and engaged in exchanges in the half-distance several times. For the first time in his professional career, he went down in the second round and was taken out of the fight in the tenth round after several heavy impacts. Castillejo won the "regular" WBA title completely surprisingly. “ Real world champion ” of the WBA association and generally of the middleweight class was still Jermain Taylor at this point .

Castillejo lost his first title defense on December 2, 2006 by technical knockout in the eleventh round against the Argentine Mariano Carrera . However, this was tested positive for the substance clenbuterol in the doping test, so that the WBA named Castillejo again in February 2007 as the title holder. The fight against Carrera was not counted, but the duel was considered a successful compulsory defense for Castillejo. Since in the meantime Jermain Taylor had also been stripped of the superchampion title, he rose to become the sole WBA world champion.

On April 28, 2007, the rematch against Felix Sturm took place in Oberhausen . Sturm beat Castillejo this time relatively narrowly on points and got the belt back. Nevertheless, Castilljo remained high in the world rankings and was nominated directly for an elimination match for the right to challenge for the WBA title. The Argentine Carrera was chosen as the opponent, who was considered the favorite due to the course of the first meeting. Castilljo was, however, surprisingly clear to many, by being knocked out in the sixth round.

Then he boxed on April 12, 2008 against the European champion Sebastian Sylvester and was knocked out in the twelfth round.

Web links

• Javier Castillejo in the BoxRec database

predecessor	Office	successor
Keith Mullings	World Light Middleweight Boxing Champion ( WBC ) January 29, 1999 - June 23, 2001	Óscar de la Hoya
Ronald Wright	World Light Middleweight Boxing Champion ( WBC ) May 2005 - June 1, 2005	Ricardo Mayorga
Felix Sturm	World Middleweight Boxing Champion ( WBA ) July 15, 2006 - April 28, 2007	Felix Sturm