Corrales-Castillo I: The Hors d’oeuvres Before the Feast Were Tasty, Too

The anniversary date is approaching of the best boxing match I ever saw live and in person, the epic first meeting of lightweight champions Diego Corrales and Jose Luis Castillo, which Corrales won the night of May 7, 2005, by miraculously rallying to win on a 10^th-round stoppage after being decked twice himself in that very same round. There have been more consequential fights I have covered from ringside – Hagler-Leonard, Tyson-Spinks, Tyson-Douglas and Chavez-Taylor I immediately spring to mind – but for unrelenting excitement and nearly incomprehensible momentum swings, Corrales-Castillo I tops even Arturo Gatti’s two slugfests with Ivan Robinson and his unforgettable trilogy with Micky Ward.

But lost, or nearly so, in the annual homages paid to what Corrales and Castillo did in the ring that night at Las Vegas’ Mandalay Bay is the celebration that preceded it at the same site the night before. That would be the 80^th annual Boxing Writers Association of America Awards Dinner, the first for the organization not held on the East Coast. I have particularly fond memories of that historic occasion because I, the then-BWAA president, had an instrumental role in making it happen, as did several others, but I couldn’t have known that the accompanying attraction the following night – Corrales-Castillo, which was televised by Showtime – would arguably make for the best weekend for boxing in the memories of many who were on hand for both events. If Corrales-Castillo I is a top contender for best fight ever, then the BWAA Awards Dinner the night before still stands as the undisputed champion of any such commemoration of the sweet science.

It was BWAA member and Las Vegas Review-Journal boxing writer Kevin Iole who first forwarded the idea that, since so many big fights were staged in his town, it might make sense to stage the 2005 dinner there. That seemed reasonable to me, so months in advance I sought to set things in motion. There were two prerequisites: the dinner would have to be paired with an attractive fight card the following evening, and be held at the same casino property hosting that card. I contacted officials at both HBO and Showtime, but it was then-Showtime Sports executive Jay Larkin – now, sadly, deceased – who enthusiastically said he would not only furnish an appropriate main event, but was willing to go a half-million dollars over his normal budget to make just the right pairing. Given today’s bloated financial figures (see Mayweather-Pacquiao), that might not seem like much, but it was a major commitment on the part of Jay’s company 15 years ago. With Showtime aboard, the Mandalay Bay also came on board as the host casino-hotel for the fight and the dinner, with Gordon Absher as gung-ho as Larkin and BWAA officers to ensure that everything went as smoothly as possible. What did happen, of course, exceeded ever our wildest expectations.

Interestingly, the 95^th BWAA Awards Dinner, which remains in limbo because of the pandemic, was being discussed for Vegas in early May, to be held in conjunction with a Canelo Alvarez bout as is his custom for Cinco de Mayo weekend. Although our event still takes place most often in New York, we returned to The Strip a couple of times since 2005 and even went farther west, to Los Angeles, on another occasion. But wherever and whenever current BWAA president Joe Santoliquito and event coordinator Gina Andriolo choose to go, topping that 2005 dinner will be as daunting a task as attaching our event with a fight that can match or exceed Corrales-Castillo I.

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Here is the column I wrote about the 80^th annual BWAA Awards Dinner that appeared in the Philadelphia Daily News on May 10, 2005:

The wife was straightening the tie to my rental tuxedo when I made the mistake of fishing for a compliment.

“So what do you think?” I asked. “Cary Grant, right?”

“You look nice,” my wonderful but honest Annie finally allowed. “But Cary Grant? I don’t think so.”

OK, so I’m never going to get a casting call for the remake of North by Northwest. Doesn’t matter. An hour after adjusting those tricky cuff links, I was made to feel like a suave and debonair star of the screen at the 80^th annual Boxing Writers Association of America’s Awards Dinner, which was as close to Hollywood glitz as an ink-stained media wretch ever is going to get.

The host venue, Las Vegas’ Mandalay Bay Resort and Casino, literally rolled out the red carpet for arriving guests. Fight fans were lined to the side holding out gloves and programs for the many current or former world champions to sign. None of the autograph seekers confused me for Cary Grant either, or for Bernard Hopkins for that matter, but, as president of the BWAA, I got pulled over for five television interviews. As I offered my thoughts on whatever to a microphone wielder with a blow-dried haircut, a camera crew to my left was interviewing Sugar Ray Leonard. One to my right was quizzing Don King.

At a resort that has a shark habitat, it occurred to me that I was chum in the water during a TV feeding frenzy. And I couldn’t help but think that there never had been a night like this since the BWAA was founded in 1925 as the Boxing Writers Association of Greater New York.

Every year, usually in April (note: dinners now are held in various months, depending on the fight with which it can be linked), the BWAA convenes at a New York hotel to pass out awards to the Fighter of the Year, Manager of the Year, Trainer of the Year and so forth. It’s a nice affair, reasonably well-attended, and a blip on the radar screen of the Big Apple’s daily social calendar. Put it this way: the BWAA dinner isn’t knocking the Yankees off the back pages of that city’s tabloids.

Fourteen months ago, however, Las Vegas Review-Journal boxing writer Kevin Iole, the Western representative to the BWAA’s board of directors, posed some simple questions. How come there never had been a BWAA Awards Dinner in Las Vegas, which is now the site of most major fight cards held in this country? And shouldn’t the organization’s premier event be accessible to members from California, Nevada, Arizona and New Mexico, most of whom had never or would never make it to New York for our annual shindig?

Hey, even the Army-Navy football game was played in the Rose Bowl once. So I told Kevin I would consider a BWAA road trip if (1) a host casino-hotel stepped forward, and (2) a suitable fight card could be arranged the following night as an anchor to our event.

Kevin soon advised me that the Mandalay Bay was willing to come aboard for May 7. Shortly after that, Showtime Sports head Jay Larkin committed to providing the best card he possibly could for the following night.

Saturday night, after Diego Corrales stopped Jose Luis Castillo in 10 rounds in a lightweight unification slugfest that became an instant classic, people still were coming up to me and saying this had been one of boxing’s best weekends ever.

Hey, after 79 BWAA dinners – 76 in New York, two at Catskills resorts, one in Atlantic City – it probably was time for someone to float a test balloon in the southern Nevada desert. All I did was let go of the string that had kept us tethered to New York, New York.

The person most responsible for making the BWAA Awards Dinner a happening is Gordon Absher, public relations director for the Mandalay Bay. Gordon recruited so many big names, the group photographed in the ring that had been set up in place of a dais was the most impressive assemblage of boxing talent in one place anyone could remember.

Anyone lucky enough to be holding a ticket – and the event sold out, which probably is a first – could look around the room and see, among others, Leonard, Hopkins, Oscar De La Hoya, Vitali Klitschko, James Toney, Chris Byrd, Lamon Brewster, Winky Wright, Floyd Mayweather, Hasim Rahman, Shane Mosley, Erik Morales and Zab Judah.

There were Imax screens set up to either side of the ring for video highlights of the nominated fights and fighters, and a snappy, tightly scripted format that the people responsible for staging the Academy Awards would be wise to emulate.

Additional kudos go to Iole, our point guy at the scene; BWAA event coordinator Gina Andriolo and BWAA vice president Jack Hirsch, who helped stuff the goody bags attendees took home along with their memories.

Perhaps the most amazing development of all is that representatives of several prospective host venues, on both sides of the country, approached me with preliminary offers to host the 2006 BWAA Awards Dinner.

Hey, so what if Clint Eastwood, Hilary Swank and Morgan Freeman, the Oscar-winning stars of Million Dollar Baby, declined my invitation to meet and mingle with the fight folk?

The way this Cary Grant wannabe looks at it, that was their loss, not ours.

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