Boxing News : Stowell : Castillo Ready to Take Another Swing

Castillo Ready to Take Another Swing
By Sean Stowell (February 13, 2004)

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From October through January Jose Luis Castillo will often take batting practice with the Mexicali Eagles of the Mexican winter baseball league. After taking his swings he gets the opportunity to stay on the team's bench in full uniform to take in the action.

Tonight he will put on his own work uniform to take on Derrick Parks in the featured bout televised on Telefutura from the Edgewater Casino in Laughlin, Nevada. Should he get past Parks he is then scheduled to step up to the plate against Juan Lazcano late this spring to take another swing at the WBC lightweight title that will be vacant when Floyd Mayweather Jr., moves up in weight.

"I'm pretty confident I'll win this fight," Castillo said, about his bout
with Parks.

While fighters rarely admit they are looking past opponents to bigger and better things, Castillo, 48-6-1 (with 44 KOs) may just be doing that. After all, Parks, 14-2-1, hasn't been in the ring against much opposition. His most name opponent was Willie Nelson-and it's not the singer. In contrast, Castillo has gone up against Cesar Soto, Jorge Paez, Mayweather, and Stevie Johnston.

In 2000 he won a 12-round majority decision against defending WBC lightweight champion Johnston in Bell Gardens, Calif. He would lose it two years later to Mayweather in a close fight that had a controversial decision. Although Castillo outworked Mayweather for a majority of the fight, the judges scored the fight for Mayweather 116-111 and 115-111 twice.

"His style is very complicated and the first three rounds were very
difficult for me," Castillo said after the fight. "I thought I won the
fight, but unfortunately the judges didn't agree with me. I thought they favored him."

About eight months later Castillo and Mayweather would lock horns again, with Mayweather earning another victory.

He has been able to rebound from the devastating defeats against Mayweather, which required him to become mentally tough and regain the confidence he once had. Since then he has gone on to defeat Gustavo Corral and Saul Duran.

He credits his mental outlook regained confidence to three-time world champion Julio Cesar Chavez, who Castillo worked with for five years as a sparring partner.

"I learned a lot from Julio," he said. "Chavez has been my greatest teacher in boxing, in and out of the ring. He gave me confidence when I didn't have it. He helped me a lot with the mental aspect of boxing, so for me he's the greatest ever, and I will always think of him as my great mentor."

A batter in baseball has to think ahead in preparation of what pitch may be coming his way next, but he can't get too far ahead of himself or he'll be swinging at strike three. The same goes for Castillo as he thinks ahead for his title bout with Lazcano in spring, but before he can take another swing at the title, he has to deal with his next pitch in Parks.

"People know when they see me fight that I'm going to give them a fight and I'm going to leave it in the ring," Castillo said. "Win or lose, that's where it is. I won't be making excuses."