Sunday, March 06, 2005
Copyright © Las Vegas Review-Journal

Castillo pounds out TKO win

Champ stops Diaz in 10th to retain WBC lightweight belt

By KEVIN IOLE
REVIEW-JOURNAL

Lightweight champion Jose Luis Castillo, right, lands a right to Julio Diaz's face in the 10th round Saturday at Mandalay Bay. Photo by John Locher. Referee Richard Steele warns Jose Luis Castillo as challenger Julio Diaz looks on Saturday in their title fight at Mandalay Bay. Photo by Isaac Brekken WBC lightweight champion Jose Luis Castillo celebrates after stopping Julio Diaz in the 10th round Saturday to retain his title. The victory earned Castillo a May 7 unification bout with WBO champion Diego Corrales. Photo by John Locher.

Julio Diaz wore the nickname "KIDD" across the front of his trunks Saturday in his lightweight title fight against Jose Luis Castillo. Despite a gallant effort, Diaz frequently looked like a kid against a man.

Castillo was too big, too strong and simply too good for Diaz, stopping him at 2:23 of the 10th round following the second knockdown, before 4,765 fans at Mandalay Bay. Diaz's left eye was grotesquely swollen, he was cut along both eyes and was spitting blood by the time referee Richard Steele stopped the bout.

Diaz went down twice in the 10th, first from a short right hand, then from an uppercut followed by a left hook. Steele reached the count of seven before electing to end it.

Castillo retained his WBC championship and earned a May 7 unification bout with WBO champion Diego Corrales.

Castillo throttled Diaz, winning seven of the nine completed rounds on all three judges' scorecards. By the time Diaz's eye began swelling in the fourth, he was eating hard right hands consistently.

"I knew he was fast and I was waiting for that, but I didn't feel his punches," said Castillo, who cemented his reputation as the world's finest lightweight. "I felt I could take his punch and go after him."

That he did. After a slow first round for both fighters, Castillo picked up the pace in the second. He hurt Diaz with short left hooks on the inside and wore him down by using a number of butts with the head, shoulders and elbows.

Defensively, Diaz had some early success fighting out of a southpaw stance. But he had to abandon it when his left eye began to swell and he couldn't see out of it.

"I was a little bothered by the head-butts and I lost vision," said Diaz, who surrendered the IBF lightweight belt to fight Castillo. "I couldn't see the punches coming in. That's the reason I'd stay there and hold him, because I couldn't see."

Diaz wasn't strong enough to keep Castillo off him and managed to keep the fight close early on with his defense. But once Diaz's face was marked up and his vision was impaired, the fight was essentially over.

Castillo said his plan was to "attack and pressure." By doing that, he delivered a fearsome beating.

"I did what I had to do: put on pressure," Castillo said. "My plan was to get in close. I took some unnecessary punches, but I was trying to bring him towards me."

In the other world title fight on the card, Jeff Lacy retained his IBF super middleweight championship by stopping Rubin Williams at 47 seconds of the seventh round.

The hard-hitting Lacy pummeled Williams from the first round on, but Williams took the shots surprisingly well. Lacy hurt Williams badly with a combination along the ropes late in the sixth round and he survived only because of the bell.

Lacy was pouring on the pressure as the bell sounded, forcing referee Tony Weeks to dive between them. He bear-hugged Williams to protect him, but when Weeks released him, Williams wobbled and nearly went down.

Lacy finished the job in the seventh, hitting Williams from all directions before Weeks stepped in.

The end was indicative of how the entire fight went, but Lacy wasn't able to put Williams down.

"I was taking my time, because we had 12 rounds," said Lacy, 19-0 with 15 knockouts. "That's a lot of time. I came in great shape and I came hard. I still have the punching power in the later rounds, and as the rounds go on, I get stronger and stronger, more determined."

Williams didn't argue the referee's decision to stop the bout, but Lacy said he would have been glad to continue doling out punishment.

"I knew I'd continue the pace and win a unanimous decision or I was going to knock him out," Lacy said. "I wasn't in a rush."