Boxing News: Showtime To Rebroadcast Epic Battle

“Let the record show that on the night of May 7, 2005, at the Mandalay Bay Resort & Casino, a spectacular boxing match was seared into legend.” – Tim Graham/TheSweetScience.com

“A Classic” “It certainly rivals Barrera-Morales I, Holyfield-Qawi and Pryor-Arguello I. But the ending will separate it from all the rest.” – George Willis/New York Post

“An instant classic.” – Tim Smith/New York Daily News

“A fight for the ages.” – Tim Dahlberg/Associated Press

“The greatest fight I have ever seen.” – Steve Kim/Maxboxing.com

“Many at ringside were declaring it the single greatest bout in boxing history.” – Dan Rafael/ESPN.com

“All the nobility, all the savagery, and all the brutality of boxing was captured in one three-minute round Saturday night.” – Ron Borges/Boston Globe

“Corrales and Castillo showed as much heart as any two fighters could show in one fight.”  – Robert Morales/Los Angeles Daily News

“What was highly touted as a potential Fight of the Year candidate turned out to be a legitimate Fight of a lifetime candidate.” – Mike Leanardi/Braggingrightscorner.com

“A fight so breathtaking in its brutality, so extraordinary in its ebbs and flows, so exceptional in its execution.” – Kieran Mulvaney/Tigerboxing.com

NEW YORK (May 9, 2005) – The new gold standard by which all fights will be judged was established last Saturday on SHOWTIME. Lightweight world champions Diego Corrales and Jose Luis Castillo produced not only what many regard as the greatest, most exciting fight in history, but also one of the most dramatic sporting events ever.

The excellent news for fans is SHOWTIME will replay the memorable slugfest twice in the next four days. The first replay will air Tuesday, May 10, at 11 p.m. ET/PT on SHOWTIME TOO. The second rebroadcast is Friday on SHOWTIME at 11 p.m. ET/PT.

Corrales (40-2 33 KOs), of Las Vegas by way of Sacramento, Calif., who entered the ring as the WBO 135-pound champion, came from the absolute brink of defeat to take Castillo’s WBC crown in one of the most dramatic comebacks in boxing history. At 2:06 of round 10, the referee stopped a sensational, brutal battle in which boxing’s two most talented 135-pound fighters gave as much as they took. Corrales was leading on two of three scorecards entering the tenth (87-84 and 86-85), but he went down from another devastating left hook 25 seconds in the round. Less than one minute later, Corrales hit the deck again from a left hook.

Castillo(52-7 46 KOs), of Sonora, Mexico, despite being ahead on only one of the scorecards (87-84) going into the tenth, seemed on his way to finishing off Corrales once and for all. With the knockdowns and penalty point, he had the round won, by at least a 10-6 score and had Corrales virtually out. But that is when Corrales rose off the canvas and somehow recovered to go on to devastate Castillo with a barrage of punches that left the champion out on his feet. Referee Tony Weeks jumped in to end the brutal fight, giving Corrales a storybook win.

For information on “ShoBox: The New Generation” and SHOWTIME CHAMPIONSHIP BOXING telecasts, including complete fighter bios, records, related stories and more, please go the SHOWTIME website at http://www.sho.com/boxing.