Two of those with the best view of the classic first fight between Diego Corrales and Jose Luis Castillo recently spoke with Brian Campbell of the “Morning Kombat” show.
Referee Tony Weeks worked the 2000s’ Fight of the Decade and Joe Goossen was in Corrales’ corner.
The epic 10th round saw Corrales go down twice only to get up each time and ultimately stop Castillo on May 7, 2005 in Las Vegas.
Showtime is replaying that fight and the Corrales-Castillo rematch as part of its “Showtime Boxing Classics” series at 10 p.m. ET / PT tonight (Friday).
“Never did I dream the fight would elevate to the level that it did,” Weeks said.
The veteran ref added: “Fifteen years later, I still think about this fight every day. What an honor to be a part of history. The two fighters put in all the work, and I just did what I was trained to do. …
“It really hit me when I went home and I’m getting all these phone calls for interviews, or people congratulating me on a great job. It was like, ‘What happened?’ When I had the chance to really sit down and look at it and see it, it was like, ‘Wow! What a fight.’”
Goossen said: “When [Corrales] got the point taken away from him on the second knockdown [for spitting out his mouthpiece], he was arguing with Tony Weeks. In my mind, that was a good thing because that showed presence of mind that he didn’t like the fact that he was getting a point taken away from him. …
“Now, I will tell you there were some people very close to Diego that were sitting a couple feet from me that were yelling at me to stop the fight. That I heard. And I responded with a quick ‘no’ because they deserved my response. … I knew what I was looking at. They may have thought differently. From their viewpoint, it may have looked a lot worse than I thought it looked.”
Castillo stopped Corrales in four rounds five months later. Less than two years after that, Corrales was killed in a motorcycle accident.
Campbell and partner Luke Thomas will host a live episode of “Morning Kombat” on the “Morning Kombat YouTube Channel” during the “Showtime Boxing Classics” telecast tonight. They will react to the fights in real time and take questions from fans.