Lightweight champion Diego Corrales will face Jose Luis Castillo in a pay-per-view rematch Saturday at the Thomas & Mack Center. Photo by John Locher.

An avowed animal lover, lightweight champion Diego Corrales owns two ferrets, Champ and Swiper, two dogs -- a boxer named Deuce and a poodle named Cookie -- a horse named Buttercup and a snake he calls Sweetie.

But the pet that Corrales has perhaps the most in common with is a Savannah Monitor lizard named Godzilla. The reptile is often quiet and friendly, but when hungry it devours live rodents.

That type of instinct has made Corrales one of the world's premier fighters -- and it saved him from a loss to Jose Luis Castillo on May 7.

Castillo floored Corrales twice in the 10th round. Corrales' left eye was closed shut -- he later described it as a golf ball -- his jaw was grotesquely swollen and he was cut under the right eye. Castillo promoter Bob Arum was so confident his fighter would win that he left his seat when Corrales went down for the second time in that fateful round, prepared to climb through the ropes to congratulate Castillo.

"I honestly thought the fight was over," said Arum, who along with Gary Shaw is promoting Saturday's pay-per-view rematch at the Thomas & Mack Center. "All of a sudden, it's stopped, going the other way. I couldn't believe it."

It was a dramatic ending to one of the best fights ever.

Corrales' wife, Michelle, was concerned but not desperate as she saw her husband on the mat.

"Diego looked at me both times after he was knocked down and he winked, so I knew he was OK," Michelle Corrales said.

She knew something Castillo did not. He moved in for the finish after twice having dropped Corrales in the first 50 seconds of the round.

He began to stalk Corrales, looking to put the finishing touches on what would have been his most significant win

But as Castillo pawed at Corrales with a jab, looking for the clincher, Corrales uncorked a right that changed the fight.

"It was that one mistake, and some people now call it a national tragedy in Mexico," a grinning Castillo said Tuesday. "I got overconfident. I was one shot away from winning the fight and knocking him out. I went over a little careless I guess and he threw a punch. I don't even know if his eyes were open."

After the ninth, both corners were urging their fighters on, knowing the outcome hung in the balance.

Corrales said he was fully aware as the 10th round began, but he made a miscalculation. Throughout the fight, Castillo had been following his jab with a hook.

To start the 10th, Castillo feinted a jab and Corrales reacted.

That left him open and Castillo landed a haymaker that dropped Corrales in the center of the ring, just 26 seconds into the round.

"I didn't remember it then, though I remember it so well now because I think I've seen it about a million times," Corrales said. "I was pretty buzzed."

He lost his mouthpiece after the first knockdown. Referee Tony Weeks took him to the corner so trainer Joe Goossen could replace it.

According to replays on Showtime, it was 16 seconds from the time Corrales went down until Goossen put the mouthpiece back in and Weeks ordered the fight to restart.

Castillo quickly landed two more crushing hooks and Corrales was down again at 52 seconds. Again he lost the mouthpiece -- intentionally, many in Castillo's corner still think -- and it was more than 20 seconds before the fight resumed.

Castillo assumed the fight was all but over.

But Corrales stunned him with a right at the 1:26 mark. Fifteen seconds later, he wobbled Castillo with a left hook and a straight right. At 1:57, Corrales unloaded a left hook that, he said Tuesday, "could have knocked a wall down." Castillo slumped against the ropes, his eyes upturned, his arms dangling at his side.

Corrales pounced and unleashed a series of blows that forced Weeks to stop the fight. It capped one of the greatest fights and most amazing rounds in boxing history.

Corrales ran into former middleweight champion Marvelous Marvin Hagler a few weeks after the bout.

"He said to me, 'I don't like watching boxing much anymore because the fighters don't fight,'" Corrales said. "He said, 'Now you, you fight the way we used to.' I'm dying because I can't believe that Marvin Hagler is talking to me. I'm about to melt. It was so amazing to hear from an absolute legend. Even Marvin Hagler said my fight (with Castillo) was incredible. Even Marvin Hagler said it."